AvlOS  ANGELA 

O       eg    -— -  * 

T        O 

g        = 

E=      .< 


* 

s 


VERS//, 


* 


OS. 


THE  IRISH  CONTRIBUTION  TO 
AMERICA'S  INDEPENDENCE 


The  Irish  Contribution  to 
America's   Independence 


By 
THOMAS  HOBBS  MAGINNISS,  JR. 


Copyright,  1913,  by  THE  DOIRE  PUBLISHING  Co.,  Philadelphia 


PRESS  OF  WM.  F.  FELL  CO. 
PHILADELPHIA 


PREFACE 

"  It  becomes  nations  as  well  as  individuals  not  to  think  of  them- 
selves more  highly  than  they  ought,  but  to  think  soberly.  Self- 
exaggeration  detracts  from  their  character  without  adding  to 
their  power;  but  a  greater  and  more  dangerous  fault  is  an 
habitual  depreciation  of  their  real  resources  and  a  consequent 
want  of  self-reliance." — GODKIN. 

ONE  of  the  faults  chargeable  against  the  Irish 
people,  and  particularly  Americans  of  Irish  de- 
scent, is  that  they  are  ignorant  of  the  achieve- 
ments of  their  race  in  the  past.  |  This  is  probably  due  to  the 
fact  that  the  people  of  Ireland  have  for  generations  been 
taught  to  believe  that  everything  respectable  has  come 
from  England  and  that  the  English  are  a  superior  race. 
Indeed,  an  attempt  has  been  made  to  impress  the  same 
theory  on  the  minds  of  Americans,  and  perhaps  the  most 
pernicious  falsehood  promulgated  by  pro-English  writers, 
who  exert  a  subtle  influence  in  spreading  the  gospel  of 
"Anglo-Saxon  superiority,"  is  that  America  owes  her 
liberty,  her  benevolent  government,  and  even  her  pros- 
perity to  her  "English  forefathers"  and  "Anglo-Saxon 
blood."  The  truth  is  that  the  impartial  history  of  Ireland 
is  the  story  of  England's  shame,  whilethe  history  of  Amer- 
ica offers  abundant  evidengjLJ)lJiieZlnnlite~lP'^^ 
men  of  the  ifI5lrraea^--In  the  first  part  of  this  work  I  have 
endeavored  to  show  that  the  American  people  derive  their 
character  more  from  the  Celt  than  from  the  Anglo-Saxon, 
but  the  book  is  designed  primarily  to  offer  evidence  to 

[3] 


662164 


PREFACE 

substantiate  the  claim  that  more  than  one-third  the  offi- 
cers and  a  large  proportion  of  the  soldiers  of  the  Conti- 
nental army  in  the  American  Revolution  were  of  Irish 
birth  or  parentage,  and  that  the  Irish  were  an  important 
element  in  American  colonial  history. 

As  the  Irish  were  driven  from  their  own  country  by  a 
system  of  persecution  much  more  severe  than  that  of  which 
the  Puritans  complained,  it  is  necessary  to  include  in  a 
work  of  this  character  some  facts  of  Irish  history  which 
account  for  the  large  volume  of  emigration  to  America  in 
colonial  times.  I  am  a  representative  of  the  very  class 
in  Ireland,  which,  in  an  effort  to  be  truthful,  I  am  com- 
pelled to  condemn  for  their  treatment  of  the  main  body  of 
the  Irish  people.  My  ancestors  in  the  male  and  female 
lines  for  many  generations  have  been  members  of  the 
Episcopal  (or  Anglican)  church.  My  grandfather  was  a 
clergyman  of  that  church  in  Ireland,  and  his  father  was 
mayor  of  the  city  of  Londonderry  at  a  time  when  it  was 
perhaps  the  most  anti-Irish  city  in  Ireland.  Had  I  been 
born  and  bred  in  Ireland,  I  should  probably  have  had  no 
opportunity  and  less  inclination  to  learn  the  real  facts  of 
her  history;  but  fifteen  years'  study  of  Irish  genealogies 
and  family  histories  has  provided  me  with  an  intimate 
knowledge  of  the  causes  that  are  the  root  of  Irish  hostility 
to  English  rule,  which,  after  all,  were  the  basic  causes  of 
the  American  Revolution. 

THOMAS  HOBBS  MAGINNISS,  JR. 

PHILADELPHIA,  December  1,  1912. 


[4] 


INTRODUCTION 

IF  the  peasantry  of  Western  England  at  the  beginning 
of  the  seventeenth  century  were  Anglo-Saxons,  then 
the  first  settlers  of  New  England  in  America  were 
also  Anglo-Saxons,  since  the  Pilgrims  and  Puritans  were 
chiefly  farmers,  small  tradesmen,  and  mechanics  from  the 
western  counties  of  England.  The  descendants  of  these 
"first  settlers"  in  New  England  became  the  landed- 
aristocracy,  and  the  majority  of  them  were  to  be  found 
among  the  Loyalists,  who  formed  a  considerable  portion 
of  the  population  of  America  (especially  Massachusetts) 
during  the  Revolution.  But  most  of  the  people  through- 
out all  the  Colonies — those  who  were  devoted  to  the 
patriot  cause — were  by  no  means  English  nor  Anglo- 
Saxon,  and  American  love  of  liberty,  our  republican  form 
of  government,  and  our  ideals  of  justice  are  directly  op- 
posed to  the  character  of  the  so-called  Anglo-Saxons,  a 
fact  that  is  evident  to  any  one  familiar  with  the  history 
of  that  race,  who  has  studied  the  history  of  the  English 
people  with  any  degree  of  analysis.  For  several  centuries 
after  the  Norman  conquest  of  England  the  common 
people,  essentially  Anglo-Saxon,  were  notable  for  their 
servility,  while  the  landed  proprietors  and  governing  class 
were  of  Norman  stock,  who  contributed  to  the  English 
character  the  spirit  of  arrogance,  selfishness,  and  lust  for 
territorial  expansion  for  which  England  has  chiefly  been 
noted.  It  is  certain  that  the  spirit  of  independence  and 


IRISH  CONTRIBUTION  TO  AMERICA'S  INDEPENDENCE 

liberality  shown  by  the  men  who  founded  America  finds 
no  comparison  in  the  servility  of  the  Saxon,  nor  in  the 
selfishness  and  imperiousness  of  the  Norman. 

The  school  histories  inform  us  that  the  settlers  of  the 
American  colonies  were  English,  Welsh,  Germans,  Dutch, 
Swedes,  and  French  Huguenots.  The  Irish  are  mentioned 
only  in  connection  with  the  potato  famine  in  Ireland,  which 
caused  hundreds  of  thousands  of  persons  of  that  nation  to 
emigrate  to  the  United  States  in  the  middle  of  the  last 
century;  but  a  careful  analysis  of  American  colonial 
records  and  immigration  statistics  will  serve  to  convince 
one  that  more  than  half  the  people  of  the  United  States, 
L  before  the  nation  was  sixty  years  old,  had  Celtic  blood  in 
I  their  veins.  The  Irish,  Scotch,  and  Welsh  belong  to  the 
v  Celtic  race,  while  recent  researches  by  a  learned  society 
in  France  lead  to  the  conclusion  that  the  French,  too 
(whom  our  histories  admit  were  an  important  part  of  our 
colonial  and  revolutionary  population),  are  a  Celtic  race. 
Thus,  even  if  the  English  population  of  the  colonial  period 
did  outnumber  the  Irish  (which  could  not  be  true  in  the 
light  of  statistics),  it  surely  did  not  outnumber  the  Irish, 
Welsh,  Scotch,  French,  Swedes,  and  Dutch,  who  assuredly 
were  not  Anglo-Saxon. 

But  because  of  the  preponderance  of  what  appear  to  be 
English  names  in  colonial  military  and  political  history, 
the  average  reader  may  question  the  truth  of  the  claim 
that  the  Irish  came  to  the  colonies  in  such  large  numbers, 
that  a  large  proportion  of  the  revolutionary  army  were 
men  of  that  race,  and  that  Irishmen  occupied  positions  of 
prominence  in  early  American  history.  Senator  Lodge 
tries  to  show  the  superiority  of  men  of  English  origin  by 
classifying  the  names  in  a  dictionary  of  biography,  and 

[61 


•; 


INTRODUCTION 

naturally  he  concludes  that  the  majority  of  great  men  are 
"Anglo-Saxon"  because  the  majority  of  the  names  appear 
to  be  of  English  origin.  To  arrive  at  his  conclusion  he 
probably  classified  as  Irish  only  those  men  whose  names 
begin  with  "Me"  or  "0,"'  or  names  obviously  Irish. 
As  a  matter  of  fact,  before  the  period  of  the  Irish  revival, 
which  began  in  the  last  century,  the  use  of  the  prefixes 
had  been  almost  universally  discontinued  by  Irish  families, 
especially  those  who  were  within  the  pale  of  English 
patronage  and  favor,  while  members  of  the  laboring  and 
servant  class  were  frequently  led  to  assume  the  English 
and  Scotch  names  of  their  masters.  The  English  govern- 
ment exerted  every  effort  to  destroy  all  vestige  of  Irish 
nationality,  and  this  effort  extended  even  to  an  attempt 
to  eradicate  ancient  Irish  names,  a  purpose  which  is  clearly 
illustrated  in  the  following  statute  of  Edward  IV,  1465: 

"At  the  request  of  the  Commons  it  is  ordeyned  and 
established  that  every  Irishman  that  dwells  betwixt  or 
among  Englishmen  in  the  County  of  Dublin,  Myeth, 
Uriell  and  Kildare  (the  whole  extent  then  of  the  English 
dominion)  shall  goe  like  to  one  English  man  in  apparell, 
and  shaving  off  the  beard  above  the  mouth,  and  shall 
take  him  an  English  surname  of  one  town,  as  Sutton, 
Chester,  Tyrm,  Skyrne,  Corke,  Kinsale;  or  color,  as 
White,  Black,  Brown;  or  art,  or  science,  as  Smith  or 
Carpenter;  or  office,  as  Cooke,  Butler,  and  that  he  and 
his  offspring  shall  use  this  name  under  peyne  of  forfeiting 
of  his  goods  yearly  till  the  premises  be  done,  to  be  levied 
two  times  by  the  year  to  the  King's  warres,  according 
to  the  discretion  of  the  lieutenant  of  the  King  or  his 
Deputy."* 

But  like  the  Penal  Laws,  which  might  have  reduced  any 
*  Spenser's  "View  of  the  State  of  Ireland,"  1585. 
[7] 


IRISH  CONTRIBUTION  TO  AMERICA'S  INDEPENDENCE 

other  race  to  barbarism  or  caused  them  to  change  their 
religion  for  the  sake  of  security,  the  law  against  the  use  of 
Irish  names  was  in  the  main  a  failure,  and  more  Irish 
names  were  changed  in  the  effort  to  curry  governmental 
favor  than  to  escape  the  penalty  which  the  law  imposed. 
In  addition  to  those  families  who  changed  their  names 
while  still  in  Ireland,  thousands  changed  the  form  of  their 
names  after  their  arrival  in  America,  while  many  of  the 
inhabitants  of  Ireland  were  of  English,  Scotch,  and  Nor- 
man origin,  and  thus  bore  names  characteristic  of  those 
nations. 

In  tabulating  his  statistics  Senator  Lodge  would  prob- 
ably have  classified  Sir  William  Johnson,  Colonial  Gov- 
ernor of  New  York,  as  English,  yet  Sir  William  John- 
son's real  name  was  McShane  (which  is  Anglicized  John- 
son). Reference  to  the  1912  edition  of  Burke's  "Peerage" 
discloses  the  fact  that  Sir  William  Johnson  was  the  son  of 
Christopher  Johnson,  of  County  Meath,  Ireland,  who  was 
the  son  of  William  McShane,  son  of  Thomas  McShane,  son 
of  John  O'Neill. 

On  the  same  principle  Robert  Treat  Paine,  signer  of  the 
Declaration  of  Independence,  would  have  been  classed  as 
English,  yet  on  reference  to  Vol.  I,  pp.  726,  727,  O'Hart's 
'•  Irish  Pedigrees,"  we  find  that  Tiege  O'Neill,  b.  1641,  had 
a  son  Robert,  who  changed  his  name  to  Paine  and  emi- 
grated to  America,  and  was  the  ancestor  of  Robert  Treat 
Paine.  This  Tiege  also  had  a  son,  Henry,  whose  son,  Art 
O'Neill,  changed  his  name  to  Payne,  and  had  a  son  Thomas, 
who  emigrated  to  America. 

The  genealogy  of  the  Kane  family,  the  members  of 
which  occupy  a  prominent  position  in  law,  business,  and 
society,  shows  that  the  first  member  of  the  family  in 

[81 


INTRODUCTION 

America  was  John  O'Kane,  who  came  to  New  York  in 
1752  and  dropped  the  O'.  He  was  a  member  of  the  family 
of  O'Caihan,  of  Deny. 

Thomas  Butler  would  without  doubt  be  classed  as  Eng- 
lish, yet  two  distinct  families  of  Butlers,  both  of  whom 
attained  prominence,  came  from  Ireland  to  America  and 
were  members  of  a  family  that  had  been  in  Ireland 
several  centuries  and  had  fought  many  times  against 
British  oppression.  Mathews'  "American  Armoury  and 
Blue  Book"  shows  that  a  Thomas  Butler  was  born  in 
Ireland  in  1674  and  settled  in  Maine  in  1692,  while 
another  Thomas  Butler,  born  in  Dublin  1720,  settled  in 
Lancaster  County,  Pa.,  1748.  Of  the  family  of  the  latter, 
four  were  officers  in  the  Revolutionary  army,  the  eldest 
advancing  to  the  rank  of  Major  General. 

Alexander  Falls,  who  served  in  the  First  Colonial  Regi- 
ment of  New  York,  would  no  doubt  be  classed  as  English, 
yet  he  was  the  son  of  Alexander  McFall,  which  is  proof 
of  his  Celtic  origin  (Mathews'  "Armoury  and  Blue  Book"). 

Innumerable  instances  like  the  above  might  be  cited, 
but  it  is  an  easy  matter  to  trace  the  transition  of  names 
from  an  Irish  to  an  English  form.  The  descendants  of 
men  who  were  named  O'Bryan  are  now  Bryant ;  O'Tooles 
have  become  Tuthills;  McNees  in  New  Hampshire 
became  "Nay"  in  the  second  generation;  McCormac  has 
become  Camac;  O'Shaughnessys  have  changed  to  Chaun- 
ceys,  and  Ryan  has  even  assumed  a  Dutch  form,  VanRyn. 
Meade  might  be  mistaken  for  an  English  name,  but  it 
was  formerly  O'Meagh.  Neilson  is  not  so  Irish  as  Mac- 
Neil,  but  it  means  precisely  the  same  thing.  O'Hart  is 
Irish,  but  drop  the  O'  and  it  is  English.  Moore  looks 
Scotch  or  English,  yet  many  descendants  of  the  O'Mores 

191 


IRISH  CONTRIBUTION  TO  AMERICA'S  INDEPENDENCE 

of  Ireland  bear  the  former  name.  It  is  obvious,  there- 
fore, that  a  claim  to  English  origin  must  rest  upon  a 
stronger  foundation  than  an  English  name,  and,  while 
thousands  of  Scotch,  Irish,  German,  French,  and  Welsh 
names  have  assumed  an  English  form,  we  have  been 
unable  to  discover  an  English  or  American  family  that 
has  assumed  an  Irish  name. 


fio 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  AND  THE  IRISH 

SINCE  her  separation  from  England  America  has  been 
a  country  of  opportunity  for  all  men.  Americans 
are  known  as  a  generous,  witty,  and  democratic 
people,  and  for  these  characteristics  they  are  indebted 
more  to  the  Celtic  blood  in  them  than  to  the  narrow, 
intolerant,  harsh  character  of  the  early  Anglo-Saxon 
Puritans.  To  arrive  at  an  intelligent  estimate  of  the 
justness  of  this  claim  it  is  only  necessary  to  consider  the 
points  of  difference  in  the  character  of  the  Anglo-Saxons 
as  a  whole  and  the  Irish,  as  it  is  by  an  analysis  of  the  vicis- 
situdes and  achievements  of  a  people  that  we  may  arrive 
at  a  true  estimate  of  their  contribution  to  the  national 
character. 

The  most  marked  difference  between  the  English  (Anglo- 
Saxons  and  Norman)  and  the  Celts  is  that  the  former 
were  noted  for  their  achievements  in  plundering  and  op- 
pressing the  weak  and  their  land  covetousness,  while  the 
latter  were  devoted  to  scholarship,  religion,  and  the  de- 
fense of  the  principles  of  liberty.  This  is  best  illustrated 
by  a  consideration  of  the  elemental  characteristics  of  the 
tribes  or  races  that  formed  the  English  nation,  on  the  one 
hand,  and  the  struggle  against  oppression  carried  on  by 
the  Irish  people  for  many  centuries,  on  the  other  hand. 

The  island  of  Britain  was  anciently  inhabited  by  a 
Celtic  race,  which  was  succeeded  in  the  course  of  time  by 

[ll] 


IRISH  CONTRIBUTION  TO  AMERICA'S  INDEPENDENCE 

tribes  of  Angles,  Saxons,  and  Jutes,  of  Teutonic  origin, 
who  came,  not  like  the  conquerors  of  the  continental 
provinces,  as  disciples  of  a  civilization  which  they  revered, 
but  simply  as  destroyers  of  a  civilization  of  which  they 
knew  nothing.  It  was  a  destroying  conquest,  which 
swept  away  the  former  inhabitants  and  their  whole  politi- 
cal system.  It  was  especially  a  heathen  conquest,  which 
utterly  rooted  up  Christianity  from  a  land  where  it  must 
already  have  taken  deep  root.*  These  tribes  formed  the 
English  nation,  which,  by  the  ninth  century,  had  become 
civilized  and  apparently  Christianized,  when  "Christian 
England  was  now  attacked  by  the  heathen  Danes,  as 
Christian  Britain  had  been  attacked  by  the  heathen 
English.  These  Danes  were  not  a  people  altogether 
foreign  to  the  English;  they  were  of  a  kindred  race  and 
spoke  a  kindred  tongue."f  The  Danes  plundered  and 
ravaged  various  parts  of  the  country;  they  made  many 
settlements,  in  which  they  held  the  English  inhabitants 
in  bondage;  and  finally  a  Dane  was  crowned  king  in  1013. 
The  Danes  ruled  the  English  until  1042,  when  a  Saxon 
king  was  crowned  through  the  efforts  of  both  Danes  and 
English. 

Thus,  when  William  the  Conqueror  came  to  England, 
he  found  there  a  nation  made  up  of  the  descendants  of 
heathen  tribes,  each  of  which  had  come  to  Britain  bent 
upon  plunder  and  extermination,  and  the  people  were 
called  "Anglo-Saxons."  The  quality  of  the  Anglo-Saxon 
spirit  of  independence  may  be  judged  by  the  fact  that 
within  five  years  William  had  conquered  the  entire  nation, 

*  "England,"  Prof.  E.  A.  Freeman,  Encyclopedia  Britannica, 
pp.  266,  7. 

|  Ibid.,  p.  287. 

[12] 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  AND  THE  IRISH 

and  in  1086,  on  Salisbury  Plain,  received  the  sworn  alle- 
giance of  every  lord,  every  lord's  free  vassal  or  tenant,  and 
every  landholder,  to  the  number  of  about  60,000,*  and  by 
far  the  greater  part  of  the  land  was  taken  from  Anglo- 
Saxon  owners  and  granted  to  Norman  followers  of  Wil- 
liam. This  conquest  of  Britain  was  not,  as  some  writers 
would  have  us  believe,  a  mere  amalgamation  of  two 
branches  of  a  kindred  race.  On  the  contrary,  it  was  a 
complete  conquest,  which  enriched  the  conquerors  and 
reduced  to  poverty  and  virtual  slavery  the  conquered. 
The  condition  of  the  Anglo-Saxons  one  hundred  years  after 
the  landing  of  the  Normans  is  truly  portrayed  in  Sir 
Walter  Scott's  "Ivanhoe,"  as  follows: 

"A  circumstance  which  greatly  tended  to  enhance  the 
tyranny  of  the  nobility  and  the  sufferings  of  the  inferior 
classes  arose  from  the  consequences  of  the  Conquest  by 
Duke  William  of  Normandy.  Four  generations  had  not 
sufficed  to  blend  the  hostile  blood  of  the  Normans  and 
Anglo-Saxons,  or  to  unite  by  common  language  and  mutual 
interests  two  hostile  races,  one  of  which  still  felt  the  ela- 
tion of  triumph,  while  the  other  groaned  under  all  the 
circumstances  of  defeat.  The  power  had  been  completely 
placed  in  the  hands  of  the  Norman  nobility  by  the  event 
of  the  battle  of  Hastings,  and  it  had  been  used,  as  our 
histories  assure  us,  with  no  moderate  hand.  The  whole 
race  of  Saxon  princes  and  nobles  had  been  extirpated  or 
disinherited,  with  few  or  no  exceptions;  nor  were  the 
numbers  great  who  possessed  land  in  the  country  of  their 
fathers,  even  as  proprietors  of  the  second,  or  of  yet  inferior 
classes.  The  royal  policy  had  been  to  weaken,  by  every 
means,  legal  or  illegal,  the  strength  of  a  part  of  the  popu- 
lation which  was  justly  considered  as  nourishing  the  most 
inveterate  antipathy  to  their  victor." 

*  Montgomery's  "History  of  England." 
[13] 


IRISH  CONTRIBUTION  TO  AMERICA'S  INDEPENDENCE 

For  two  hundred  years  after  the  Conquest  the  Anglo- 
Saxons  wore  the  collar  of  the  Norman.  Their  complete 
subjection  to  Norman  rule  eventually  secured  for  them  a 
measure  of  independence,  for  they  became  useful  to  the 
barons  in  the  latters'  conflicts  with  the  crown  and  in  their 
wars  for  plunder.  Most  assuredly  the  motto,  "Give  us 
liberty  or  give  us  death,"  could  not  have  had  its  origin 
in  Anglo-Saxon  fidelity  to  the  principles  of  liberty.  For 
centuries  the  masses  of  the  English  people  were  contented, 
because  they  were  willing  to  serve  their  masters;  they  were 
willing  to  pay  the  taxes  necessary  to  maintain  an  aris- 
tocracy, whose  titles  to  large  landed  estates  were  founded 
mainly  on  the  superior  force  used  to  obtain  them;  and 
to  provide  the  soldiery  necessary  to  carry  on  those  wars 
of  conquest  that  have  brought  to  the  kingdom  so  much  of 
the  treasure  that  was  the  foundation  of  Britain's  power. 
Indeed,  England's  greatness  as  a  world  power  begins  with 
her  conquest  of  India  before  the  American  Revolution, 
when  the  wealth  from  India,  at  first  mere  plunder,  began 
to  pour  into  England,  and  the  revenue  from  that  country 
amounted  to  from  15,000,000  to  75,000,000  pounds  a  year 
in  specie,  besides  the  commerce  from  the  East  which 
poured  into  English  harbors.* 

It  is  clear  to  the  average  student  of  history  that  the 
Anglo-Saxons  were  not  notable  as  a  brave  people;   that 
the  Normans,  while  brave,  were  adventurers,  and  that 
love  of  plunder  was  the  predominating  characteristic  of 
both  races.    And  as  we  contemplate  the  present  state  of 
the  British  nation,  and  the  liberties  enjoyed  by  its  mem- 
bers, we  are  apt  to  forget  that  England,  in  the  sixteenth 
and  seventeenth  centuries,  had  her  "  bloody  commissions, 
*  Fisher's  "True  Story  of  the  Revolution." 
[14] 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  AND  THE  IRISH 

gun-powder  plot,  her  intrigues  and  cabals;  chevaliers  and 
round-heads,  Pride's  Purge  and  Rump  Parliament,  Bare- 
bone's  Parliament,  and  no  Parliament;  with  dregs  of  fanat- 
ics, and  for  thirty  years  100,000  men  of  the  same  country 
at  war  with  each  other,  and  all  to  satisfy  the  ambition  of 
the  weakest  or  the  worst  in  mankind."* 

On  the  other  hand,  the  history  of  the  Irish  people  for 
the  last  nine  hundred  years  deals  mainly  with  their  struggle 
to  retain  their  property  and  to  secure  their  independence. 
The  land  in  Ireland  has  been  confiscated,  the  ancient 
churches  and  castles  lie  in  ruins,  but  the  Irish  people  have 
never  been  conquered  and  their  spirit  remains  unbroken. 
Had  the  Irish  submitted  to  the  loss  of  their  property; 
had  they  been  willing  to  wear  the  collar  of  Norman 
slavery,  as  the  Saxons  did,  Ireland's  history  would  have 
been  different.  But  in  Ireland  the  Normans  had  an  en- 
tirely different  character  of  people  to  deal  with.  The  Irish 
of  the  twelfth  century  were  naturally  a  proud  people. 
The  antiquity  of  their  race,  their  form  of  government, 
and  the  fact  that  serfdom  never  existed  among  them  made 
their  submission  to  the  Norman  feudal  system  and  Nor- 
man plundering  impossible.  The  Irish  at  that  period 
were  not  barbarians,  nor  had  Ireland,  like  Britain,  been 
conquered  by  the  Romans  and  several  successions  of 
foreign  tribes  during  the  period  from  the  beginning  of  the 
Christian  era  to  the  coming  of  the  Normans,  though  it  is 
true  the  Danes  made  settlements  on  the  coast  and  estab- 
lished separate  kingdoms  in  Dublin,  Waterford,  and 
Limerick,  and  it  was  in  these  cities  the  English  secured 
their  first  foothold  in  Ireland. 

In  scholarship  and  fidelity  to  the  cause  of  Christianity 

*"  History  of  Derry." 
2  [15] 


IRISH  CONTRIBUTION  TO  AMERICA'S  INDEPENDENCE 

the  Irish  people  of  the  middle  ages  were  unexcelled  by  any 
other  nation.  Edmund  Spenser,  the  celebrated  English 
poet,  said,  "It  is  certain  that  Ireland  hath  had  the  use  of 
letters  very  anciently,  and  long  before  England."  Not  only 
did  they  have  the  use  of  letters  long  before  England,  but 
they  actually  taught  the  Saxons  the  use  of  letters.  The 
Saxon  nobility  and  gentry  resorted  to  Ireland  for  edu- 
cation in  the  seventh  and  eighth  centuries,  and  were 
received  at  the  famous  university  of  Armagh  and  main- 
tained free  of  charge,  supplied  with  books,  and  taught  with- 
out fee  or  reward.  Lord  Lyttleton,  Sir  James  Ware, 
Edmund  Spenser,  and  the  Venerable  Bede,  Anglo-Saxon 
historian,  furnish  ample  testimony  regarding  the  superior 
learning  and  culture  of  the  Irish  over  the  inhabitants  of 
Britain  before  the  Norman  conquest;  but  few  Englishmen 
know  that  one  of  the  founders  of  the  great  University  of 
Oxford  was  an  Irishman,  Johannes  Scotus  Erigena,  and 
that  Alfred,  King  of  the  Northumbrian  Saxons,  received 
his  education  in  Ireland  the  latter  part  of  the  seventh 
century.  While  the  Saxons,  Danes,  and  Normans  (all 
belonging  to  the  race  of  Northmen)  were  pursuing  their 
regular  vocation  of  ravaging,  murdering,  and  plundering 
the  people  of  other  nations  in  western  Europe,  the  Irish 
were  engaged  in  the  nobler  occupation  of  spreading 
Christianity  and  learning  throughout  the  world.  For  the 
truth  of  this  statement  we  have  the  testimony  of  not 
only  English  historians  of  earlier  times,  but  historians  of 
other  countries.  Mosheim,  Protestant  ecclesiastical  his- 
torian of  Germany,  said:  "That  the  Irish  were  lovers  of 
learning  and  distinguished  themselves  in  those  times  of 
ignorance  beyond  all  other  European  nations,  traveling 
through  the  most  distant  lands  with  a  view  to  improve  and 

[16] 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  AND  THE  IRISH 

communicate  their  knowledge,  is  a  fact  with  which  I  have 
long  been  acquainted,  as  we  see  them  in  the  most  authentic 
records  of  antiquity  discharging  with  the  highest  reputa- 
tion and  applause  the  functions  of  doctors  in  France, 
Germany,  and  Italy."  Moreri,  a  distinguished  French- 
man, in  his  Dictionary,  published  in  1795,  under  Ireland, 
said:  "Ireland  has  given  the  most  distinguished  professors 
to  the  most  famous  universities  of  Europe,  as  Claudius 
Clements  to  Paris,  Albuinus  to  Pavia  in  Italy,  Johannes 
Scotus  Erigena  to  Oxford  in  England.  The  English 
Saxons  received  from  the  Irish  their  characters  or  letters, 
and  with  them  the  arts  and  sciences  that  have  flourished 
since  among  these  people,  as  Sir  James  Ware  proves,  in 
his  Treatise  on  the  Irish  Writers,  Book  I,  chapter  13,  where 
may  be  seen  an  account  of  the  celebrated  academies  and 
public  schools  which  were  maintained  in  Ireland  in  the 
seventh,  eighth,  ninth,  and  tenth  ages,  which  were  resorted 
to,  particularly  by  the  Anglo-Saxons,  the  French,  and 
ancient  Britons,  who  were  all  received  there  with  greater 
hospitality  than  in  any  other  country  of  the  Christian 
world." 

Irish  woolen  fabrics  were  celebrated  on  the  continent 
as  early  as  the  eighth  century;  the  skill  of  Irish  art  metal 
workers  was  notable  in  the  sixth  century,  and  the  Tara 
Brooch,  belonging  to  the  eighth  century,  "is  a  wonderful 
specimen  of  exquisite  delicacy."  The  artistic  merit  of 
the  illuminated  manuscripts  of  the  seventh  and  tenth 
centuries  is  a  matter  of  common  knowledge,  while  a  no- 
table church,  called  St.  Caimin,  with  richly  carved  doors, 
was  built  on  an  island  in  Lough  Derg  in  1007,  fifty  years 
before  Edward  the  Confessor  (a  Norman  by  education  and 
inclination)  laid  the  foundation  of  Westminster  Abbey. 

117] 


IRISH  CONTRIBUTION  TO  AMERICA'S  INDEPENDENCE 

The  Irish  conception  of  an  enduring  state  or  nation  was 
seven  centuries  ahead  of  the  times.  "The  law  with  them 
was  the  law  of  the  people,"  and  the  Irish  clan  system  was 
essentially  a  pure  democracy;  in  fact  it  went  so  far  as  to 
include  the  initiative  and  recall,  for  "each  tribe  was 
supreme  within  its  own  borders;  it  elected  its  own  chief 
and  could  depose  him  if  he  acted  against  the  laws."  The 
head  king  was  the  representative  of  the  whole  national 
life,  but  his  power  rested  on  the  tradition  of  the  people 
and  the  consent  of  the  clans.  He  could  impose  no  new 
law,  and  might  demand  no  service  outside  the  law.* 

It  is  therefore  easy  to  understand  why  the  Irish  never 
would  submit  to  the  Norman  feudal  system,  and  why  they 
so  readily  adapt  themselves  to  the  principles  of  democracy 
as  exemplified  by  the  government  of  the  United  States. 

But  from  a  race  of  scholars  in  the  eleventh  century  the 
Irish  had  developed  through  necessity  into  a  race  of 
fighters  by  the  thirteenth  century,  and  whereas  the 
Anglo-Saxons  and  the  Normans  carried  on  wars  of  op- 
pression and  plunder,  the  Irish  have  been  distinguished 
for  their  warfare  against  oppression,  not  only  with  regard 
to  their  national  and  political  existence,  but  in  those 
practical  affairs  that  concern  the  masses  of  the  people. 
The  reason  for  this  change  in  the  character  of  the  Irish 
nation  is  clear  to  any  one  familiar  with  the  practices  em- 
ployed by  the  English  government  in  their  effort  to  con- 
quer and  despoil  the  people  of  Ireland,  and  as  it  was  these 
practices  which  drove  the  Irish  people  to  America  in 
colonial  times,  we  shall  now  proceed  to  a  consideration  of 
the  causes  that  engendered  in  Irishmen  that  distrust  of 
British  promises  which  they  brought  to  America. 

*  Alice  Stopford  Green,  in  "Irish  Nationality." 
fl81 


WHY  THE  IRISH  CAME  TO  AMERICA 

THERE  is  no  people  on  earth  that  has  been  so 
vilified,  deceived,  and  persecuted  as  the  Irish, 
first,  on  the  pretext  of  the  advancement  of  civili- 
zation; next,  under  the  cloak  of  religion,  and  lastly,  under 
the  pretext  of  the  common  weal;  and  the  underlying 
motive  has  always  been  plunder.  Whether  the  Irish  were 
loyal,  peaceable,  or  righteous  made  little  difference  if  they 
did  not  "stand  and  deliver"  to  the  horde  of  English  ad- 
venturers who  came  to  rob  them.  English  "civilization" 
in  Ireland  began  with  the  granting  by  Henry  II  of  the 
County  Meath  800,000  acres  to  Hugh  de  Lacy,  a  Norman 
baron,  who  immediately  commenced  to  make  good  his 
claim  by  the  sword.  From  that  time  on,  for  several  centu- 
ries, the  English  carried  on  a  war  to  secure  the  land  and  for 
political  ascendency.  The  Irish  fought  to  retain  what  had 
been  theirs  for  a  thousand  years  before  the  coming  of  the 
Normans. 

Henry  II,  who  first  proclaimed  himself  "Lord  of  Ire- 
land," sent  his  son  John  in  1185  to  receive  the  homage  of 
the  Irish  chieftains.  Immediately  on  his  arrival  at  Water- 
ford  "the  leading  Irishmen  of  the  neighborhood  who  had 
hitherto  been  loyal  to  the  English  and  had  lived  peaceably, 
came  to  welcome  the  king's  son  as  their  lord  and  to  give 
him  the  kiss  of  peace.  But  John's  Norman  retinue  treated 
them  with  derision,  some  even  rudely  pulling  their  long 

f  191 


IRISH  CONTRIBUTION  TO  AMERICA'S  INDEPENDENCE 

beards  in  ridicule  of  the  alien  fashion.  This  irresponsible 
levity  had  its  natural  effect.  The  Irishmen,  deeply  in- 
censed, betook  themselves  and  their  families  to  Donnell 
O'Brien,  and  disclosed  to  him  and  to  Dermot  McCarthy, 
and  even  to  Rory  O'Connor,  the  treatment  they  had 
received,  adding  that  the  king's  son  was  a  mere  stripling 
surrounded  and  counselled  by  striplings  himself,  and  that 
from  such  a  source  there  was  no  prospect  for  Irishmen  of 
good  government  or  even  of  security.  Influenced  by  these 
reports  these  three  chief  kings  of  the  south  and  west  of 
Ireland,  who,  we  are  told,  were  prepared  to  wait  upon 
John  and  offer  him  their  submission  as  they  had  previously 
done  to  Henry,  were  induced  to  take  a  different  course. 
Laying  aside  for  the  moment  their  interminable  quarrels, 
which  had  hitherto  given  opportunity  to  the  advance  of 
foreigners,  they  formed  a  league  together,  and  unani- 
mously determined  to  defend  with  their  lives  their  ancient 
liberties.  This  example  was  followed  by  the  other  native 
chieftains,  who  all  held  aloof  from  John  and  his  giddy 
court. 

"A  proud  and  sensitive  people  never  willingly  submits 
to  the  rule  of  a  master,  however  mighty,  who  despises 
them.  But  of  course  this  rude  plucking  of  the  beards  was 
only  a  symbol  of  that  want  of  consideration  for  the  native 
Irish  which  exhibited  itself  in  more  harmful  ways.  Con- 
tinuing with  the  causes  of  the  failure  of  the  expedition, 
Gerald  Cambrensis  says :  'Contrary  to  our  promises,  we 
took  away  the  lands  of  our  own  Irishmen — those  who  from 
the  first  coming  of  Fitzstephen  and  the  Earl  had  faithfully 
stood  by  us — and  gave  them  to  our  newcomers.  These 
Irishmen  then  went  over  to  the  enemy  and  became  spies 
and  guides  for  them  instead  of  for  us,  having  all  the  more 

[201 


WHY  THE  IRISH  CAME  TO  AMERICA 

power  to  injure  us  because  of  their  former  familiarity  with 
our  ways.'  "* 

"The  custody  of  the  maritime  towns  and  castles,  with 
the  adjacent  lands  and  tributes,  was  given  to  men  who, 
instead  of  using  the  revenue  for  the  public  good  and  the 
detriment  of  the  enemy,  squandered  it  in  excessive  eating 
and  drinking.  Then,  though  the  country  was  not  half 
subdued,  both  the  civil  and  military  command  was  given 
into  the  hands  of  carpet  knights,  who  were  more  intent  on 
spoiling  good  citizens  than  in  attacking  foemen,  who, 
reversing  the  politic  maxim  of  the  ancient  Romans, 
oppressed  those  who  had  submitted  while  leaving  the 
enemy  unscathed.  So  that  nothing  was  done,  either  by 
making  incursions  into  the  enemy's  country,  or  by  the 
erection  of  numerous  castles  throughout  the  land,  or  by 
clearing  the  'bad  passes'  through  the  woods,  to  bring 
about  a  more  settled  state  of  things.  The  bands  of  mer- 
cenaries were  kept  within  the  seaport  towns,  and,  imitat- 
ing their  captains,  gave  themselves  up  to  wine  and 
women."  f 

Many  of  the  early  arrivals  were  assimilated  by  the 
Irish  and  adopted  their  customs,  dress,  and  laws;  in  fact, 
they  "became  more  Irish  than  the  Irish  themselves";  and 
for  three  hundred  years  English  influence  was  confined  to 
the  Pale,  which  comprised  the  territory  within  a  radius 
of  30  miles  of  Dublin.  This  center  was  a  hotbed  of  in- 
trigue, treason,  and  deception.  Common  honesty  was  so 
rare  among  the  English  rulers,  it  is  no  wonder  that,  on 
the  death  of  Earl  Clifford,  the  English  President  of 

*  "Ireland  Under  the  Normans,"  Goddard  Henry  Orpen,  late 
Scholar  Trinity  College,  1911,  vol.  ii,  p.  96,  etc. 
t  Ibid.,  p.  106. 

[21J 


IRISH  CONTRIBUTION  TO  AMERICA'S  INDEPENDENCE 

Connaught,  in  1598,  "the  Irish  of  Connaught  were  not 
pleased  at  Clifford's  death — he  had  never  told  them  a 
falsehood."*  Naturally,  the  Irish  people  looked  upon  the 
English  as  a  nation  of  robbers,  bribers,  and  deceivers, 
because  so  many  of  those  who  failed  to  satisfy  their 
ambition  in  England  came  to  Ireland,  a  country  rich  in 
natural  resources,  fertile  land,  and  of  honorable  traditions. 
Her  early  misery  was  not  due  so  much  to  English  laws  as 
to  the  action  of  the  parasites  who  hoped  to  feed  on  the 
misery  they  created.  As  the  Protestant  Archbishop,  King, 
wrote  in  1697,  "The  Governors  of  Ireland  for  their  own 
interest  have  kept  it  in  a  state  of  war  these  five  hundred 
years,  and  will  if  not  prevented  keep  it  so  to  the  end  of 
the  world.  A  governor  comes  over  here  hungry  and  poor, 
with  numerous  dependents  to  be  provided  for,  and  how 
should  he  provide  for  them  but  by  bringing  as  many  under 
forfeitures  as  he  can,  as  they  have  done  all  along  and  so 
they  will  do  so  still." 

The  fundamental  cause  of  the  struggle  between  the 
Irish  and  English  from  the  coming  of  the  Normans  to 
that  of  William  of  Orange  was  for  possession  of  the  land. 
By  various  grants  from  the  Crown  to  English  adventurers 
and  court  favorites,  and  by  so-called  plantations,  Irish 
gentlemen  were  removed  from  their  heritages  and  obliged 
to  accept  the  merest  shreds  of  their  own  soil,  to  become 
laborers  for  those  whom  they  viewed  as  highwaymen,  or 
to  fly  into  the  woods  and  mountains,  there  to  await  the 
opportunity  and  the  call  of  a  leader  to  recover  their 
property.  The  awful  scenes  of  misery,  the  enormous  blood- 
shed, and  the  sacrifice  of  the  general  interests  of  Ireland 
as  a  nation  are  traceable  to  the  unlawful,  un-Christian, 
*  "  Four  Masters." 
[22] 


and  inhuman  disregard  of  property  rights,  morality,  and 
ordinary  justice  on  the  part  of  the  English  party  in  Ireland. 
This  theory  is  confirmed  by  the  circumstance  that  the 
Province  of  Ulster  was  comparatively  free  from  the  misery 
suffered  by  the  people  further  south  until  the  Plantation 
of  Ulster,  begun  by  James  I.  The  land  in  the  other  prov- 
inces had  gradually  been  taken  from  the  Irish  owners 
and  granted  to  Englishmen.  Ulster  was  left,  but  there 
were  still  more  land  hungry  gentlemen  of  broken  fortune, 
and  younger  sons  of  noble  houses,  in  England  and  Scotland 
to  be  rewarded,  hence  James  undertook  the  Plantation  of 
the  fertile  Province  of  Ulster  in  1607.  Large  estates  in 
the  possession  of  ancient  Irish  families  for  centuries  were 
granted  to  English  and  Scotch  gentlemen,  who  for  their 
greater  security,  partitioned  the  land  out  in  smaller  tracts 
to  their  own  followers,  who  held  upon  payment  of  a  yearly 
tax  to  the  grantor.  By  this  plan  a  stranger  to  Ireland 
would  secure  a  tract  of,  say,  20,000  acres,  on  which  he 
colonized  30  or  40  families,  who  worked  the  land  and  paid 
him  a  yearly  rental.  In  many  instances  an  Irish  gentle- 
man who  had  owned  10,000  or  20,000  acres  by  inheritance, 
in  which  his  kinsmen  shared,  was  allowed  to  retain  a  few 
hundred  acres,  subject  to  the  payment  of  an  annual  rental 
to  an  English  adventurer,  as  in  the  case  of  a  colonizer. 
Naturally,  even  if  the  then  owners  accepted  the  conditions 
without  rebelling,  their  sons  and  grandsons  would  suffer 
the  effects  of  this  injustice;  and  naturally,  too,  it  led  to  a 
division  of  the  inhabitants  living  side  by  side  in  the  same 
country.  On  the  one  hand,  were  those  who  had  been 
reduced  from  a  condition  of  gentility  and  plenty  to  poverty 
and  peasantry,  while  on  the  other  hand,  were  those  who 
enjoyed  comparative  plenty,  secure  in  their  possessions 

[231 


IRISH  CONTRIBUTION  TO  AMERICA'S  INDEPENDENCE 

by  the  power  of  an  alien  government,  at  the  expense  of 
the  former,  and  who  committed  such  acts  as  might  incite 
Irishmen  to  further  rebellion,  in  the  hope  of  securing  the 
remaining  remnants  of  the  land  left  to  them. 

The  Plantation  of  Ulster  culminated  in  the  Rebellion  of 
1641,  which  marks  the  last  great  struggle  of  the  older 
Irish  families  for  the  recovery  of  the  land  and  their  ancient 
liberties.  Other  features  developed  which  attracted  to 
the  cause  of  the  Irish  the  descendants  of  English  settlers 
in  all  the  provinces.  The  Rebellion  was  finally  crushed 
by  Cromwell,  assisted  by  those  in  Ireland  who  represented 
English  interests.  From  the  standpoint  of  those  interests 
Cromwell  did  his  work  only  too  well.  His  object  was 
extermination,  and  when  he  had  finished,  Ireland  had  been 
laid  waste,  the  population  had  been  reduced  to  about 
850,000  (of  whom  about  150,000  were  English  and  Scotch), 
and  the  helpless  Catholic  Irish  gentry,  with  their  followers 
and  tenants,  had  either  been  transplanted  to  the  barren 
and  bog  lands,  had  migrated  to  foreign  lands,  or  were 
so  broken  as  to  be  no  further  menace  to  the  English  and 
Scotch  planters  who  took  their  places. 

To  finance  the  army  which  Cromwell  used  to  crush  the 
Rebellion  bonds,  each  representing  so  many  acres  of  land 
to  be  confiscated,  were  sold  in  England.  In  addition  to 
the  forfeited  lands  disposed  of  in  this  way,  Cromwell's 
soldiers  were  allotted  sections  of  the  land  according  to 
military  rank.  In  this  way  practically  the  whole  of  Ulster 
and  portions  of  other  provinces  not  already  confiscated 
were  repeopled.  But  the  ancient  Irish  were  by  no  means 
exterminated,  as  the  majority  of  Irish  laborers  were  allowed 
to  stay  and  work  under  the  new  settlers,  and  in  a  military 
colony,  women  are  scarce,  hence  Cromwell's  soldiers 

[24] 


WHY  THE  IRISH  CAME  TO  AMERICA 

married  natives.  "To  use  their  own  words,  they  saw  the 
daughters  of  Moab  that  they  were  fair."*  Furthermore, 
recovery  from  defeat  or  misfortune  is  essentially  an  Irish 
characteristic,  and  many  of  those  who  had  been  trans- 
planted gradually  worked  their  way  back,  though  under 
altered  circumstances,  and  the  laborers  left  sons  and  grand- 
sons who  became  merchants  and  professional  men  of  a 
future  generation. 

One  effect  of  Cromwell's  conquest  that  concerns  us 
particularly  is  that  it  marks  the  beginning  of  the  first 
noticeable  migration  of  the  Irish  people  to  the  American 
colonies.  In  addition  to  those  who  voluntarily  came  to 
the  New  World  to  escape  the  misery  in  Ireland,  Cromwell 
caused  about  9000  (some  say  many  more)  women  and 
children  to  be  sent  to  the  colonies  and  to  the  West  Indies 
as  slaves,  while  40,000  men  among  the  disaffected  of  the 
population  are  estimated  to  have  enlisted  in  the  armies 
of  France  and  other  European  countries,  and  transmitted 
their  Irish  blood  to  the  population  of  other  countries  that 
helped  in  the  peopling  of  America. 

Apart  from  the  natural  struggle  for  the  land,  the  Irish 
people  had  other  causes  for  detesting  a  government  and 
its  representatives  who  not  only  deprived  them  of  their 
property,  but  attempted  to  reduce  them  to  a  condition 
of  barbarism,  moral  depravity,  ignorance,  and  slavery. 
The  traits  we  commend  in  the  Irish  people — their  humor, 
pathos,  versatility,  fidelity  to  principles,  and  devotion  to 
traditions — are  inherent  and  a  part  of  their  character. 
The  ignorance  of  some  and  the  lawlessness  of  other 
members  of  the  race  are  the  direct  result  of  English  ex- 
ample and  laws  made  for  the  governance  of  the  Irish 
*  "Ireland,"  Encyclopedia  Britannica. 


IRISH  CONTRIBUTION  TO  AMERICA'S  INDEPENDENCE 

people.  The  diversity  of  interests  between  those  that 
represented  English  interests  on  the  one  hand,  and  the 
Irish  people  on  the  other,  accounts  in  great  measure  for 
the  factional  strife  down  to  the  period  of  the  great  mi- 
gration to  the  United  States  at  the  beginning  of  the  eigh- 
teenth century.  Added  to  this  was  religious  persecution, 
which  spared  neither  Celtic-Irish  nor  Anglo-Irish,  Catholic, 
Presbyterian,  nor  any  others  who  did  not  conform  to  the 
state  religion;  and  still  later  legislation  which  affected  the 
whole  nation,  or  such  of  the  people  as  were  not  large  land- 
holders and  government  employees.  We  have  already 
cited  the  opinion  of  the  Protestant  Archbishop,  King.  At 
about  the  same  time,  the  Catholic  Bishop,  Molowny, 
wrote  to  Bishop  Tyrrel  as  follows:  "Nor  is  there  any 
English,  Catholic  or  other,  of  what  quality  or  degree 
soever  alive,  that  will  stick  to  sacrifice  all  Ireland  for  to 
save  the  least  interest  of  his  own  in  England,  and  would 
as  willingly  see  all  Ireland  over  inhabited  by  English  of 
whatsoever  religion  as  by  the  Irish."* 

It  was  Henry  II  who  strengthened  the  power  of  the 
Pope  in  Ireland;  it  was  Henry  VIII  who  received  from  the 
Pope  the  title  of  "Defender  of  the  Faith"  for  his  perse- 
cution of  Protestants  before  he  desired  to  divorce  his  wife ; 
and  it  was  his  daughter  by  his  second  marriage  who  first 
began  the  persecution  of  the  Irish  and  Anglo-Irish  who 
had  not  acknowledged  Henry  as  Head  of  the  Church.  In 
England  the  religion  of  the  people  was  a  political  affair. 
During  the  period  of  the  Reformation,  the  people  changed 
their  form  of  religion  with  a  change  of  kings,  and  those  who 
refused  to  worship  according  to  the  then  existing  religion 
were  persecuted.  Thus,  in  Elizabeth's  reign  barbarity  was 
*  "The  Revolution  in  Ireland,"  p.  87,  time  of  James  II. 
[26] 


WHY  THE  IRISH  CAME  TO  AMERICA 

not  only  practised  on  Roman  Catholics,  but  extended  to 
such  Protestants  as  did  not  conform  to  the  ritual  of  the 
Church  of  England.  In  1575  two  Dutch  Baptists  of  Lon- 
don were  burned  alive  at  the  stake,  and  at  one  time 
Elizabeth  had  300  heads  of  "heretics"  exposed  over  the 
entrance  to  London  Bridge  and  the  Tower  and  Temple 
Bar. 

The  Reformation  did  not  affect  Ireland  as  it  did  other 
countries,  because  the  social  conditions  in  that  country 
did  not  offer  the  opportunity,  because  their  religion  had 
been  a  part  of  the  national  life  of  the  people  for  a  thousand 
years  before  the  Reformation,  and  instead  of  an  influence 
from  within,  an  attempt  was  made  by  an  alien  government 
to  coerce  the  clergy  to  acknowledge  the  supremacy  of  the 
English  sovereign,  rather  than  to  change  the  material  form 
and  substance  of  their  worship.  With  a  change  of  rulers 
in  England,  Irish  bishops  were  required  to  conform  on 
pain  of  death.  The  priests  and  laity  were  ordered  to 
conform  or  suffer  persecution.  Apart  from  the  principles 
involved,  the  missionaries  sent  from  England  to  reform 
the  Church  in  Ireland  were  of  a  type  unlikely  to  secure 
either  the  confidence  or  respect  of  the  people.  In  the 
words  of  a  Protestant  historian:  "To  preach  what  he 
thought  true  when  he  could  do  it  safely,  to  testify  against 
toleration,  and  in  the  meantime  to  make  a  fortune,  was 
too  often  the  sum  and  substance  of  an  Anglican  prelate's 
work  in  Ireland."*  This  was  also  the  attitude  of  the  entire 
English  laity  in  Ireland. 

Growing  out  of  the  attempt  to  promote  the  Protestant 

religion,  or  rather  the  Church  of  England,  in  Ireland, 

penal  laws  were  enacted  from  time  to  time  in  the  reigns 

*  "  Ireland,"  Encyclopedia  Britannica. 

[27] 


IRISH  CONTRIBUTION  TO  AMERICA'S  INDEPENDENCE 

of  Elizabeth,  James  I,  William  and  Mary,  and   Anne. 
These  laws  provided  that: 

1.  No  Catholic  might  teach  school  or  any  child  but 

his  own,  or  send  children  abroad  to  be  educated. 

2.  Mixed  marriages  were  forbidden  between  persons 

of  property,  and  children  might  forcibly  be 
brought  up  Protestants. 

3.  A  Catholic  could  not  act  as  guardian,   and  all 

wards  in  chancery  were  brought  up  as  Prot- 
estants. 

4.  The  son  of  a  Catholic  landed  proprietor  might 

by  "conforming" — i.  e.,  turning  apostate — make 
his  father  simply  a  tenant  and  secure  his  own 
inheritance. 

5.  A  Catholic  could  not  take  a  longer  lease  than  31 

years  at  two-thirds  of  a  rack  rent. 

6.  If  a  Catholic  inherited  property  he  could  be  ousted 

by  the  next  Protestant  heir  unless  he  "conformed" 
within  six  months. 

7.  No  Catholic  might  have  arms  in  his  possession, 

and  justices  were  empowered  to  search  houses  of 
Catholics  for  arms. 

8.  If  a  Catholic  owned  a  good  horse,  any  Protestant 

might  claim  it  on  tendering  5  pounds. 

9.  No  Catholic  could  be  admitted  to  the  bar,  nor 

could  he  hold  a  commission  in  the  Army. 

Naturally,  "these  laws  put  a  premium  on  hypocrisy,  and 
many  conformed  only  to  preserve  their  property  or  to 
enable  them  to  take  office."  Of  the  Penal  Code,  Edmund 
Burke  said:  "A  complete  system,  full  of  coherence  and 
consistency,  well  digested  and  composed  in  all  parts — a 
machine  of  wise  and  elaborate  contrivance,  and  as  well 
fitted  for  the  oppression,  impoverishment  and  degradation 
of  a  people,  and  the  debasement  in  them  of  human  nature 

[281 


WHY  THE  IRISH  CAME  TO  AMERICA 

itself,  as  ever  proceeded  from  the  perverted  ingenuity  of 
man."  The  wonder  is  that  there  were  any  Catholics  left 
in  Ireland,  for  the  Penal  Laws  were  effective  wholly  or 
partially  for  a  period  of  three  hundred  years.  It  was  not 
until  1795  that  Catholics  were  admitted  to  Trinity  College, 
the  only  university  permitted  in  Ireland,  and  not  until 
1829  were  they  permitted  to  vote  for  Catholics;  yet  such 
is  the  Irish  devotion  to  principle  and  their  love  of  liberty 
that  at  the  beginning  of  the  eighteenth  century,  two- 
thirds  of  the  Irish  people  were  Catholics! 

Dean  Swift,  while  pastor  of  Laracor,  was  visited  by  a 
friend  from  England  who,  surprised  at  the  forlorn  aspect 
of  the  landscape  around  the  rectory,  asked  the  cele- 
brated divine,  "Where  are  your  old  Irish  nobility?" 
Swift  replied:  "You  will  have  to  search  for  them 
amongst  the  hovels  of  the  poor."  This  was  not  satire: 
it  was  literal  fact.  Many  of  the  Catholic  Irish  nobility 
were  reduced  to  absolute  destitution,  as  Burke's  "Vicissi- 
tudes of  Irish  Families"  amply  proves.  There  was  one 
remarkable  illustration  of  the  completeness  of  the  trans- 
formation well  known  in  Cork  City  for  many  years  in  the 
beginning  of  the  nineteenth  century.  The  representative 
of  the  oldest  baronetcy  in  Ireland,  Sir  Theophilus  Moore, 
and  his  lady,  lived  in  Cork  Bridewell — the  baronet 
jingling  the  keys  every  day  as  Bridewell  keeper;  and  the 
lady  running  around  in  the  morning  among  the  hucksters, 
buying  bread,  milk,  and  vegetables  from  the  hucksters 
who  rented  stalls  on  the  Coal  Quay,  the  spot  whereon 
the  ancient  Bridewell  stood. 

Religion  was  used  in  Ireland  as  a  cloak  for  the  ad- 
vancement of  worldly  and  political  power.  As  all  the  land 
was  held  by  the  immigrants  from  England  and  Scotland, 

[29] 


IRISH  CONTRIBUTION  TO  AMERICA'S  INDEPENDENCE 

Protestants  naturally  became  the  ruling  class.  Their 
position  was  made  more  secure  by  vilifying  the  ancient 
Irish  whose  lands  they  had  taken,  and  it  became  the 
fashion  to  keep  the  "mere  Irish"  down.  While  the 
Catholics  still  had  some  strength,  the  Penal  Laws  were 
enforced  to  reduce  them  to  pauperism.  After  Cromwell's 
conquest  the  Presbyterians  rose  into  power,  and  "as  soon 
as  they  felt  their  strength,  asked  to  have  the  army  under 
Presbyterian  influence."  They  refused  to  take  apprentices 
that  would  not  covenant  to  go  to  their  meetings,  and  when 
a  majority  in  municipal  corporations,  they  excluded  all 
not  of  their  persuasion.  On  the  return  of  Charles  II,  they 
lost  some  of  their  power,  and  61  ministers  in  Ulster  were 
ejected  from  their  churches  and  Anglican  curates  appointed 
in  their  places.  With  the  conquest  of  William  of  Orange 
they  again  regained  strength,  but  "under  Queen  Anne 
(1702-1714)  the  Presbyterians  again  lost  almost  every 
advantage  that  had  been  gained  and  became  by  the  Test 
Act  of  1705  virtually  outlaws.  Their  marriages  were 
declared  invalid  and  their  chapels  were  closed.  They  could 
not  maintain  schools  nor  hold  office  above  that  of  petty 
constable."  Their  right  to  worship  was  not  legally  recog- 
nized till  1719,  but  from  1704  to  1778,  they  were  in- 
capacitated for  all  public  office.* 

"Persecution  peopled  America,"  and  in  the  case  of  the 

Puritans,    Pilgrims,    and   Quakers   this   meant   religious 

persecution  by  a  Protestant  government.    But  the  Irish 

people  fled  from  Ireland,  not  only  because  of  religious 

persecution,  but  because  they  suffered  from  every  form  of 

oppression  that  selfish  interests  could  devise.    In  Ireland 

the  government  was  opposed  to  everything  Irish.    Cath- 

*  Bolton,  "Scotch-Irish  Pioneers." 

[30] 


WHY  THE  IRISH  CAME  TO  AMERICA 

olics  and  Presbyterians  alike  were  excluded  from  all  office, 
and  these  were  filled  by  English  members  of  the  Estab- 
lished Church,  "who  bartered  Irish  freedom  for  the  place 
and  power  of  their  own  families  and  dependents."  The 
causes  that  led  to  the  American  Revolution  were  in- 
significant compared  with  those  of  which  the  Irish  com- 
plained. The  Navigation  Acts  of  1666  excluded  Ireland 
from  all  her  natural  advantages  and  cut  her  off  from 
direct  trade  with  the  colonies.  When  tobacco  growing, 
introduced  into  Ireland  by  Sir  Walter  Raleigh,  had  become 
profitable,  it  was  forbidden.  When  the  exportation  of 
cattle  into  England  was  placed  under  prohibitory  duties, 
the  Irish  turned  to  sheep-raising,  and  the  manufacture  of 
woolen  goods,  an  ancient  Irish  industry,  began  to  flourish. 
The  English  Parliament,  at  the  demand  of  selfish  English 
interests,  then  crushed  the  Irish  woolen  industry  (1698) 
by  heavy  export  duties,  and  suggested  the  substitution 
of  linen  manufacture.  When  this  had  become  profitable, 
laws  were  enacted  in  1708  to  discourage  it,  hence  we  find 
thousands  of  men  employed  in  the  linen  trade  emigrating 
to  New  England,  where  they  introduced  the  spinning- 
wheel  and  the  manufacture  of  linen  in  1718.  Cotton, 
glass,  brewing,  sugar-refining,  and  other  industries  were 
systematically  strangled  when  they  interfered  with  the 
trade  of  Britain.  "  Kidnapping,  enforced  service  in  the 
American  colonies,  and  traffic  in  political  prisoners  were 
indulged  in  by  the  government.  Ireland  as  a  dwelling- 
place  for  Catholics  or  Protestants,  for  Celts  or  Saxons, 
for  native  and  Scotch  settlers,  was  a  country  of  ever- 
renewed  distress."* 

*  Edward  Potts  Cheyney,  "European  Background  of  American 
History,"  1909. 

3  [31] 


IRISH  CONTRIBUTION  TO  AMERICA'S  INDEPENDENCE 

While  England  was  at  war  with  the  colonies,  Irish- 
men at  home  were  quietly  working  to  secure  a  measure  of 
independence  for  themselves.  "England's  Extremity  is 
Ireland's  Opportunity,"  and  when  England  found  it  neces- 
sary to  withdraw  several  thousand  soldiers  from  Ireland 
for  use  in  America,  the  Irish  Volunteers  were  organized, 
ostensibly  for  the  "defense  of  Ireland  against  foreign  in- 
vasion." On  February  15,  1782,  representatives  of  143 
corps  of  volunteers  of  the  Province  of  Ulster  met  at 
Dungannon  and  adopted  21  resolutions,  among  which 
were  the  following: 

Resolved,  That  a  citizen,  by  learning  the  use  of  arms, 
does  not  abandon  any  of  his  civil  rights. 

That  a  claim  of  any  body  of  men,  other  than  the 
King,  Lords,  and  Commons  of  Ireland,  to  make 
laws  to  bind  this  kingdom,  is  unconstitutional, 
illegal,  and  a  grievance. 

That  the  ports  of  this  country  are,  by  right,  open 
to  all  foreign  countries,  not  at  war  with  the 
King;  and  that  any  burthen  thereupon,  or 
obstruction  thereto,  save  only  by  the  parlia- 
ment of  Ireland,  is  unconstitutional,  illegal,  and 
a  grievance. 

That  the  independence  of  judges  is  equally  essen- 
tial to  the  impartial  administration  of  justice 
in  Ireland,  as  in  England;  and  that  the  refusal 
or  delay  of  this  right  to  Ireland  makes  a  dis- 
tinction where  there  should  be  no  distinction, 
may  excite  jealousy  where  perfect  union 
should  prevail;  and  is,  in  itself,  unconstitu- 
tional and  a  grievance. 

That  we  hold  the  right  of  private  judgment  in 
matters  of  religion  to  be  equally  sacred  in 
others  as  in  ourselves.  That  as  men,  and  as 

[321 


WHY  THE  IRISH  CAME  TO  AMERICA 

Irishmen,  as  Christians  and  as  Protestants, 
we  rejoice  in  the  relaxation  of  the  penal  laws 
against  our  Roman  Catholic  fellow-subjects; 
and  that  we  conceive  the  measure  to  be 
fraught  with  the  happiest  consequences  to  the 
union  and  prosperity  of  the  inhabitants  of 
Ireland. 

Among  the  signers  of  the  foregoing  resolutions,  who 
were  appointed  a  committee  to  represent  the  corps,  were 
the  following: 

Meryyn  Archdall  John  Harvey 

William  Irvine  Robert  Campbell 

Robert  McClintock  Joseph  Pollock 

John  Ferguson  Wracldell  Cunningham 

John  Montgomery  Francis  Evans 

Charles  Leslie  John  Cope 

Francis  Lucas  James  Dawson 

Thomas  Morris  Jones  James  Atcheson 

James  Hamilton  Daniel  Eccles 

Andrew  Thompson  Thomas  Dixon 

Alexander  Stewart  David  Bell 

James  Patterson  John  Coulston 

Francis  Dobbs  Robert  Black 

Charles  Duffin  William  Crawford 

These  resolutions  have  somewhat  the  ring  of  the  Dec- 
laration of  Independence.  They  were  passed  by  men  of 
the  Province  of  Ulster  (whose  descendants  in  America 
now  call  themselves  "Scotch-Irish"),  and  it  will  be  noticed 
that  the  names  are  not  at  all  unlike  names  prevalent  in 
Colonial  America  and  would  not  distinguish  the  bearers 
thereof  as  Irish;  yet  these  men  were  as  much  Irish  as 
the  present  members  of  the  Sons  of  the  Revolution  are 
Americans. 

The  Volunteers  of  Ireland  soon  numbered  nearly  100,- 
000  men  in  all  the  provinces,  more  than  half  being  in  the 

[33] 


IRISH  CONTRIBUTION  TO  AMERICA'S  INDEPENDENCE 

southern  provinces.  As  a  result  of  their  strength  and 
activity,  Ireland  secured  her  legislative  independence  in 
January,  1783,  and  from  that  time  to  1798  there  was  not  a 
nation  on  the  habitable  globe  which  had  "advanced  in 
cultivation  and  commerce,  in  agriculture  and  manufac- 
tures with  the  same  rapidity,  in  the  same  period"  as  Ire- 
land.* 

Had  this  prosperity  come  fifty  years  earlier,  it  would 
have  checked  the  tide  of  emigration  to  America  and  per- 
haps have  changed  the  whole  history  of  the  latter  country. 
The  Volunteers  had  in  mind  the  establishment  of  a  demo- 
cratic parliament,  and  they  probably  would  have  obtained 
absolute  independence  had  not  the  American  Revolution 
terminated  when  it  did.  With  the  increase  of  prosperity 
and  the  growing  strength  of  the  people  the  English  gov- 
ernment, after  its  recovery  from  the  American  war,  set 
about  finally  to  take  away  even  that  measure  of  inde- 
pendence which  England  in  her  extremity  had  been  com- 
pelled to  grant  to  Ireland.  Writing  in  1798,  Sir  Ralph 
Abercromby,  who  had  been  appointed  commander  of  the 
forces  in  Ireland  the  year  previous,  declared  that  "Within 
these  twelve  months  every  crime,  every  cruelty  that  could 
be  committed  by  Cossacks  or  Calmucks  has  been  trans- 
acted here;"  that  "houses  had  been  burned,  men  murdered, 
others  half  hanged."  Abercromby,  himself  a  humane 
man,  could  not  countenance  these  tortures,  and  in  1798 
he  was  recalled.  A  month  later  the  Rebellion  of  the 
United  Irishmen,  whose  leaders  were,  with  few  exceptions, 
Protestants,  broke  out.  When  this  Rebellion  was  crushed 
the  Irish  Parliament  was  packed  with  placemen,  and  in 
1800  the  Act  of  Union  did  away  with  the  Parliament  and 
*  Lord  Clare,  in  a  pamphlet  published  by  him  in  1798. 
[84] 


WHY  THE  IRISH  CAME  TO  AMERICA 

Ireland  lost  her  national  identity.  Lord  Cornwallis,  who 
as  lord  lieutenant,  supervised  the  details,  wrote:  "Nothing 
but  the  conviction  that  an  Union  is  absolutely  necessary 
for  the  safety  of  the  British  empire  could  make  me  endure 
the  shocking  task  which  is  imposed  on  me. — I  despise  and 
hate  myself  every  hour  for  engaging  in  such  dirty  work. — 
How  I  long  to  kick  those  whom  my  public  duty  obliges 
me  to  court!"  The  methods  employed  to  bring  about  the 
Union  and  to  crush  opposition  are  strikingly  illustrated 
by  the  following  facts: 

One  hundred  and  sixty-two  members  out  of  a  total  of 
303  in  Parliament  voted  for  the  Union.  Of  these,  116 
were  placemen,  some  of  them  English  staff  generals  with- 
out one  foot  of  land  in  Ireland. 

The  expenditure  for  the  military  force  maintained  in 
Ireland  from  1797  to  1801  amounte'd  to  over  $80,000,000, 
over  $20,000,000  of  which  was  spent  for  the  year  1800. 

The  following  received  the  amounts  set  opposite  their 
names  for  their  patronage  in  supplying  placemen  for  the 
Parliament: 

Lord  Shannon $225,000 

The  Marquis  of  Ely 225,000 

Lord  Clanmorris 115,000  besides  a  peerage 

Lord  Belvidere 75,000 

Sir  Hercules  Langrishe  .  . .     75,000 

Seven  million  five  hundred  thousand  dollars  were  distri- 
buted among  the  members  of  Parliament,  as  "compensa- 
tion for  their  losses  incident  to  the  Union,"  and  many  were 
raised  to  the  peerage,  elevated  to  the  bench,  or  pensioned. 

Reynolds,  who  kept  the  government  informed  of  the 
proceedings  of  the  United  Irishmen,  an  organization  of 
patriots,  leaders  of  the  Rebellion  of  1798,  received  a  pen- 
sion of  $4600  a  year  for  thirty-seven  years,  $27,000  in 
gratuities,  and  a  foreign  consulship. 

[351 


IRISH  CONTRIBUTION  TO  AMERICA'S  INDEPENDENCE 

The  above  is  intended  merely  to  illustrate  the  lavish 
expenditure  of  money  by  the  British  Government,  a  prac- 
tice carried  on  for  several  hundred  years  to  destroy  Irish 
independence.  The  people's  money  was  used  for  the  pur- 
pose, and  the  following  note  on  Ireland  in  1716,  found 
among  the  papers  of  Archbishop  King,  shows  how  this 
money  was  obtained  and  the  suffering  it  caused  the  Irish 
people.  "Upon  the  whole  I  do  not  see  how  Ireland  can 
on  the  present  foot  pay  greater  taxes  than  it  does  without 
starving  the  inhabitants  and  leaving  them  entirely  without 
meat  or  clothes.  They  have  already  given  their  bread, 
their  flesh,  their  butter,  their  shoes,  their  stockings,  their 
beds,  their  furniture  and  houses  to  pay  their  landlords  and 
taxes.  /  cannot  see  how  any  more  can  be  got  from  them, 
except  we  take  away  their  potatoes  and  buttermilk,  or  slay 
them  and  sell  their  skins."* 

*  Second  Report,  G.  B.  Royal  Commission  on  Historical  MS., 
London,  1874,  pp.  256,  257. 


[36] 


THE  IRISH  RACE  OF  THE  EIGHTEENTH 
CENTURY 

NO  other  race  possessed  more  vitality  and  assimi- 
lative powers  than  the  ancient  Irish  people;  and 
the  settlers  from  England  and  Scotland  (except 
possibly  those  among  the  official  class)  became  in  a  very 
short  space  of  time  unmistakably  Irish.  Most  of  the 
Normans  and  English  that  came  to  Ireland  in  the  thir- 
teenth and  fourteenth  centuries  soon  adopted  Irish  customs 
and  dress.  The  poet  Spenser  "was  one  of  the  band  of  ad- 
venturers, who,  with  mixed  motives  of  love  of  excitement, 
patriotism,  piety,  and  hopes  of  forfeited  estates"  went  to 
Ireland  in  the  sixteenth  century  to  aid  in  the  suppression  of 
a  rebellion  led  by  the  Earl  of  Desmond,  and  he  advocated  the 
destruction  of  the  race  by  a  process  of  systematic  starva- 
tion, yet  his  own  grandson  was  expelled  from  house  and  prop- 
erty by  Cromwell  as  an  "Irish  Papist."  James  the  First's 
Scotch  and  English  settlement  of  Ulster  took  place  in  1603, 
Cromwell's  confiscation  and  plantation  of  nearly  the  whole 
of  rural  Ireland  occurred  in  1652,  and  William  the  Third's 
confiscation  of  more  than  a  million  acres  was  made  in  1691. 
Scotch  and  English  farmers,  soldiers,  tradesmen  and  a  few 
gentry  immigrated  into  Ireland  and  settled  on  the  con- 
fiscated land,  yet  forty  years  after  the  Puritans  settled 
in  Ireland  it  was  reported  that  many  of  the  children  of 
Cromwell's  soldiers  could  not  speak  a  word  of  English,  and 

[37] 


IRISH  CONTRIBUTION  TO  AMERICA'S  INDEPENDENCE 

in  1690  hundreds  of  the  descendants  of  Puritan  settlers 
were  fighting  for  the  Catholic  King  James  II.  Seven 
years  after  the  battle  of  the  Boyne,  when  William  defeated 
King  James,  many  of  William's  soldiers  had  become 
Catholics.* 

Wolfe  Tone,  leader  of  the  Rebellion  of  1798,  was  the 
grandson  of  an  Englishman  and  an  Episcopalian;  Thomas 
Addis  Emmett,  great-great-grandson  of  one  of  Cromwell's 
soldiers,  was  banished  from  Ireland  for  his  participation 
in  the  same  Rebellion  and  emigrated  to  America.  His 
brother,  Robert,  was  hanged  in  1803  as  leader  of  the  Re- 
bellion of  1803.  Francis  McKinley,  great^grand-uncle  of 
the  American  President,  was  hanged  as  an  Irish  rebel  in 
1798.  These  are  not  isolated  cases,  but  are  typical  of 
thousands  of  instances  where  men  of  English  and  Scotch 
name  were  just  as  Irish  in  sentiment  and  action  as  the 
O'Briens,  McLaughlins,  Murphys,  and  O'Callaghans. 

It  will  be  observed  in  the  Dungannon  Resolutions  of  the 
Ulster  Volunteers  that  the  members  refer  to  themselves 
as  Irishmen,  not  as  Scots  or  Scotch-Irish,  yet  of  the  28 
names  of  members  given,  only  one  is  distinctively  an  Irish 
name.  The  term  "Scotch-Irish"  is  purely  an  American 
invention,  used  by  an  unthinking  class  of  descendants  of 
Irish  immigrants  who  imagine  it  is  more  respectable  to  be 
Scotch-Irish  than  pure  Irish.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  it 
would  be  hard  to  find  an  Irish  family  that  has  not  some 
Norman,  English,  or  Scotch  blood,  and  if  those  who  pride 
themselves  on  being  the  direct  descendants  of  Scotch  and 
English  settlers  were  familiar  with  Irish  history,  it  might 
occur  to  them  that  the  majority  of  English  and  Scotch  in 
Ireland  were  settlers  who  usurped  the  property  of  the 
*  "The  Legacy  of  Past  Years,"  Lord  Dunraven. 
[38] 


THE  IRISH  RACE  OF  THE  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY 

rightful  owners  and  were,  consciously  or  unconsciously, 
the  cause  of  the  poverty  and  misery  suffered  by  thousands 
of  ancient  Irish  families. 

Among  the  middle-class  residents  of  Belfast  and  Lon- 
donderry and  their  immediate  environs,  the  Scotch  settlers 
retained  their  Scotch  sentiments  and  characteristics  for 
a  generation  or  two,  but  the  emigration  to  America  from 
these  two  cities  was  insignificant  compared  to  that  from 
other  parts  of  Ireland.  Indeed,  the  few  hundred  settlers 
of  Londonderry,  New  Hampshire,  were  perhaps  the  only 
body  of  distinctively  Londonderry  Irish  emigrants  in 
colonial  times.  The  other  Ulster  immigrants  came  from 
the  hills  of  Donegal,  from  Down,  Antrim,  Tyrone,  Mon- 
aghan,  and  Armagh,  where  they  had  associated  and  inter- 
married with  the  Irish  for  several  generations  and  they 
possessed  the  good  nature,  optimism,  and  generosity  of 
the  Irish  race.  A  period  of  over  one  hundred  years  had 
elapsed  from  the  Plantation  of  Ulster  with  Scotch  and 
English  adventurers  until  the  beginning  of  the  great  Irish 
emigration  to  the  American  colonies,  and  surely  a  family 
that  had  lived  in  Ireland  for  that  length  of  time  might  be 
considered  as  Irish.  It  is  true,  of  course,  that  the  people 
of  Ulster  were,  as  a  whole,  more  prosperous  than  those 
from  some  other  parts  of  Ireland,  but  this  was  due  to  the 
fact  that  Ulster  had  since  the  Plantation  enjoyed  an  equi- 
table tenure  of  land,  which  was  not  extended  to  other  parts 
of  Ireland  until  late  in  the  nineteenth  century,  and  indus- 
tries were  established  in  Ulster  as  in  no  other  parts  of 
Ireland.  The  prosperity  of  Ulster  could  not  have  been 
due  to  English  blood,  as  there  was  more  Anglo-Saxon  and 
Norman  blood  in  the  Province  of  Munster  in  the  seven- 
teenth century  than  there  was  in  Ulster.  The  people 

[39] 


IRISH  CONTRIBUTION  TO  AMERICA'S  INDEPENDENCE 

of  Ulster  had  greater  advantages  and  were  freer  from 
English  influence  than  the  people  in  the  South,  the  south- 
ern provinces,  with  the  ports  of  Dublin,  Waterford,  Cork, 
and  Limerick,  being  more  accessible  and  more  attractive 
to  English  settlers. 

But  by  the  eighteenth  century  the  descendants  of  Scotch 
and  English  settlers  had  in  most  instances  become  Irish 
in  fact  as  well  as  by  birth,  and  in  this  work  we  include  as 
Irish  all  who  came  from  Ireland.  Of  late  years  the 
"Scotch-Irish"  have  been  receiving  due  credit  for  their 
contribution  to  the  settlement  and  prosperity  of  America, 
but  in  another  chapter  we  shall  show  that  these  so-called 
"Scotch-Irish"  had  good  old-fashioned  Irish  names — 
when  they  arrived  in  America,  at  any  rate. 


40 


THE  IRISH  COLONIAL  IMMIGRATION 


"Even  the  Protestant  exiles  from  Ulster  went  to  America  as 
'Sons  of  St.  Patrick.'  To  shun  persecution  and  designed 
ruin  by  the  English  government,  Protestants  and  Catholics 
had  gone,  and  their  money,  their  arms,  the  fury  of  their  wrath, 
were  spent  in  organizing  the  American  war.  Irishmen  were 
at  every  meeting,  every  council,  every  battle.  Their  indignation 
was  a  white  flame  of  revolt  that  consumed  every  fear  and  vacilla- 
tion around  it.  That  long,  deep,  bitter  experience  bore  down 
the  temporizers,  and  sent  out,  men  trained  in  suffering  to 
triumph  over  adversity." — ALICE  STOPFORD  GREEN,  in  "Irish 
Nationality,"  pp.  179,  180. 


W 


E  have  seen  that  three  causes  operated  to  drive 
the  Irish  people  to  the  American  colonies, 
namely : 


First:  Wars  of  extermination,  carried  on  by  the  English 
to  secure  the  land  of  the  ancient  proprietors. 

Second:  Religious  persecution,  having  for  its  real  object 
the  advancement  of  the  political  power  of  the  Anglican 
party. 

Third:  Economic  and  industrial  oppression,  which 
affected  families  of  all  religious  persuasions,  and  particu- 
larly the  inhabitants  of  the  Province  of  Ulster,  who,  under 
hitherto  favorable  conditions,  had  built  up  thriving  in- 
dustries. 

It  is  evident  that  the  first  to  leave  Ireland  were  the  older 
Irish  people — the  men  who  had  fought  the  incoming  ad- 
venturers in  the  effort  to  retain  their  property.  These 

[41] 


IRISH  CONTRIBUTION  TO  AMERICA'S  INDEPENDENCE 

were  followed  by  others  who  fled  to  escape  the  Penal  Laws 
and  other  forms  of  oppression  to  which  the  Irish  and 
Anglo-Irish  Catholics  were  subject;  the  Presbyterians, 
who  were  persecuted  by  the  Anglican  Church  party;  and, 
lastly,  all  classes  of  Irish  men  and  women  who  wanted  to 
work,  but  were  prevented  from  enjoying  the  fruits  of  their 
labor  by  unjust  legislation  enacted  upon  the  demand  of 
selfish  British  business  interests  to  depress  Irish  industries. 
The  destruction  of  the  wool  trade  is  estimated  to  have 
ruined  over  forty  thousand  families  in  all  parts  of  Ireland, 
while  the  destruction  of  the  linen  trade,  together  with 
other  forms  of  oppression,  reduced  the  population  of 
Ulster  alone  by  half  a  million  people  before  the  beginning 
of  the  American  Revolution. 

The  actual  loss  in  the  population  of  Ireland  from  1672 
to  1695,  according  to  the  statistics  of  Sir  William  Petty, 
was  over  700,000,  while  the  loss  from  1712  to  1785  is 
estimated  to  have  been  over  1,000,000.  The  exiles  went 
into  every  country  in  Europe  In  the  service  of  France 
alone  over  400,000  Irish  soldiers  are  estimated  to  have 
died  from  1691  to  1745.  There  was  not  a  country  among 
the  powers,  and  not  an  occupation,  in  which  Irishmen 
were  not  to  be  found  as  generals,  admirals,  statesmen, 
scholars,  physicians,  engineers,  business-men,  and  labor- 
ers. As  for  the  American  colonies,  Irish  men,  women, 
and  children  began  coming  before  1650,  while  in  the  eigh- 
teenth century  they  came  in  thousands,  from  North  and 
South,  East  and  West,  Catholics,  Protestants,  gentry, 
nobility,  and  peasantry,  bearing  English  names,  Irish 
names,  Scotch  names,  or  any  convenient  name  that  would 
free  them  from  English  malice.  There  can  be  no  question 
regarding  the  attitude  of  these  exiles  from  Ireland.  They 

[42] 


THE  IRISH  COLONIAL  IMMIGRATION 

had  suffered  untold  misery ;  they  had  been  persecuted  to 
the  verge  of  despair;  and  they  came  with  a  burning  sense 
of  the  selfishness  and  deceit  which  characterized  English 
rule  in  Ireland.  The  proof  of  their  coming, — that  they 
came  in  alarming  numbers, — and  that  they  did  not  alto- 
gether escape  English  persecution,  is  found  in  contempo- 
rary records.  Nor  did  they  come  only  to  a  few  of  the 
colonies,  but  to  all,  and  that  they  influenced  the  political, 
economic,  and  religious  life  of  the  colonies  is  certain. 

In  "Races  and  Immigrants  in  America,"  John  R.  Com- 
mons, speaking  of  the  Irish  immigration,  says,  "  This  was 
by  far  the  largest  contribution  of  any  race  to  the  population 
of  America  during  the  eighteenth  century."  Writing  in 
1789,  Ramsey,  the  historian  of  North  Carolina,  said: 
"The  Colonies  which  now  form  the  United  States  may  be 
considered  as  Europe  transplanted.  Ireland,  England, 
Scotland,  France,  Germany,  Holland,  Switzerland,  Sweden, 
Poland,  and  Italy  furnished  the  original  stock  of  the  pres- 
ent population,  and  are  generally  supposed  to  have  con- 
tributed to  it  in  the  order  named.  For  the  last  seventy  or 
eighty  years  no  nation  had  contributed  so  much  to  the  popu- 
lation of  America  as  Ireland."  On  the  other  hand,  Sena- 
tor Lodge,  in  his  "Story  of  the  Revolution,"  says  that 
"the  people  of  Massachusetts  were  of  almost  pure  English 
blood,  with  a  small  infusion  of  Huguenots  and  a  slight 
mingling,  chiefly  in  New  Hampshire,  of  Scotch-Irish 
from  Londonderry."  The  latter  statement  shows  either 
gross  ignorance  or  is  a  deliberate  fabrication.  While  it 
is  true  the  colonists  that  arrived  in  New  England,  from  the 
landing  of  the  Mayflower  passengers  in  1620  to  the  rise  of 
Cromwell  in  1648,  were  almost  wholly  yeomanry  from 
England,  the  latter  circumstance  reduced  the  necessity 

[43] 


IRISH  CONTRIBUTION  TO  AMERICA'S  INDEPENDENCE 

for  Puritan  emigration  to  the  same  extent  that  it  increased 
the  necessity  for  Irish  emigration;  and  while  numbers  of 
the  Puritans  returned  to  England  to  receive  the  benefits 
of  the  rise  of  their  party  into  power,  Irishmen  left  Ireland 
to  escape  Puritan  persecution.  In  any  case,  a  large  num- 
ber of  Irish  gentlemen  came  to  New  England  (by  way  of 
England  in  some  cases)  among  the  20,000  persons  that 
are  estimated  to  have  arrived  during  the  period  of  the 
great  Puritan  exodus;  but  the  first  noticeable  influx  of 
Irish  people  into  New  England  began  in  1652,  when  by 
Cromwell's  orders,  400  Irish  children  were  sent  to  the 
colonies  to  be  sold  as  slaves.  From  that  time  on  the  ship- 
ment of  Irish  men,  women,  and  children  to  New  England 
was  common  practice.  Many  of  them  were  political 
prisoners,  whose  chief  crime  had  been  the  ownership  of 
property;  hundreds  were  kidnapped  with  the  connivance 
of  government  officials;  and  many  came  of  their  own 
volition.  That  they  came  in  sufficient  numbers  as  to 
cause  alarm  is  evident  from  a  manuscript  report  of  a 
committee  appointed  by  the  Colony  of  Massachusetts  to 
consider  certain  proposals  for  the  public  benefit,  dated 
October  29,  1654,  of  which  the  following,  with  spelling 
revised,  is  a  copy: 

"This  Court,  considering  the  cruel  and  malignant  spirit 
that  has  from  time  to  time  been  manifest  in  the  Irish 
nation  against  the  English  nation,  does  hereby  declare  the 
prohibition  of  any  Irish  men,  women  or  children  being 
brought  into  this  jurisdiction  on  the  penalty  of  fifty  pound 
sterling  to  each  inhabitant  that  shall  buy  of  any  merchant, 
shipmaster,  or  other  agent,  any  such  person  or  persons 
so  transported,  which  fine  shall  be  by  the  county's  mar- 
shall,  on  conviction  of  some  magistrate  or  court,  levied, 
and  be  to  the  use  of  the  informer  one-third  and  two-thirds 

[44] 


THE  IRISH  COLONIAL  IMMIGRATION 

to  the  county.     This  act  to  be  in  force  six  months  after 
publication  of  this  order. 

(Signed)  Dan  Gooken. 

Thomas  Savage. 

Roger  Clap. 

Richard  Russell. 

Francis  Norton." 

It  would  appear  that  similar  laws  existed  earlier,  as  in 
1650  applications  were  made  by  several  individuals  for  the 
remission  of  fines  imposed  for  the  offense.*  The  enact- 
ment of  this  law  is  sufficient  proof  that  the  number  of 
arrivals  from  Ireland  must  have  been  large,  as  a  few 
hundred  women  and  children  would  not  have  given  rise  to 
grave  fears.  It  is  more  than  probable  that  many  proud 
New  England  families  of  today,  bearing  "English" 
names,  are  descended  from  some  of  these  poor  Irish  serv- 
ants, many  of  whom  were  of  better  blood  than  the  most 
arrogant  Puritans,  but  their  old  Irish  names  were  in  most 
instances  replaced  by  English  ones,  and  not  having  the 
opportunity  to  practise  any  other  religion,  became  Puri- 
tans themselves.  But  servants,  political  prisoners,  and 
kidnapped  children  were  not  the  only  classes  of  Irish 
people  that  came  to  New  England  early  in  her  history. 
We  find,  for  example,  that  Captain  Daniel  Patrick  (other- 
wise Gilpatrick)  and  Robert  Feake,  bearers  of  Irish  names, 
were  the  first  white  settlers  in  what  is  now  Greenwich, 
Conn.,  1639;  John  Burrage  Martin,  born  in  England,  son 
of  a  County  Galway  gentleman,  came  to  Massachusetts 
in  1637;  Captain  Robert  Keayne  or  Kane  (name  of  Irish 
origin)  came  from  London  to  Boston  in  1635,  and  founded 
the  Ancient  and  Honorable  Artillery  Co.,  of  Boston; 
*  Notes  and  Queries  Magazine,  vol.  v,  seventh  series,  p.  226. 
[451 


IRISH  CONTRIBUTION  TO  AMERICA'S  INDEPENDENCE 

Richard  Wilkins,  a  householder  in  Boston,  1689,  was 
formerly  a  bookseller  in  Limerick,  Ireland,  and  the  an- 
cestor of  John  Hancock,  who  came  from  the  County  Down. 
We  learn  further,  from  the  chapter  on  King  Philip's  War, 
1675,  in  the  "  Pilgrim  Republic  "  by  Goodwin,  and  this  war 
was  far  more  grievous  to  New  England  than  the  Revolu- 
tion,— that  during  this  war  England  was  an  indifferent 
spectator,  and  that  the  "only  aid  which  ever  came  to  the 
colonies  from  any  source"  was  a  subscription  for  £1000 
raised  in  Dublin,  Ireland. 

It  is  clear  that  Irish  or  Celtic  blood  early  mingled  in  the 
New  England  population,  which,  in  1700,  was  estimated  to 
have  been  105,000,  some  part  of  which,  in  addition  to  the 
Irish,  was  made  up  of  Normans  from  the  Channel  Islands, 
Welsh,  and  Scotch.  Granting,  however,  that  the  popula- 
tion was  "almost  wholly  English"  in  1700,  it  certainly 
was  not  in  1775.  With  the  beginning  of  the  eighteenth 
century  the  Irish  began  coming  to  New  England  in  vast 
numbers.  It  would  be  impossible  to  estimate  the  number 
of  persons  that  came  from  Ireland,  or  the  number  of  ships 
from  that  country  which  landed  colonists  at  New  England 
ports,  as  the  arrivals  during  the  eighteenth  century  were 
not  so  much  an  event  as  the  landing  of  the  Pilgrims,  how- 
ever much  they  may  have  influenced  future  events  of 
importance  to  the  colonies.  But  from  the  Boston  News 
Letter  we  learn  that  53  ships  from  Ireland  landed  colonists 
at  Boston  in  the  years  from  1714  to  1720.  In  the  Records 
of  the  Boston  Selectmen,  Report  of  the  Record  Commis- 
sioners, 1736  to  1742,  we  find  the  following  items:  Cap- 
tain George  Bond  gave  a  bond  for  £1000  for  37  persons 
imported  from  Ireland;  Capt.  Gibbs  and  Mr.  Ramsey, 
bond  of  £1000  and  Mr.  Waldo  £200  for  persons  imported 

[46] 


THE  IRISH  COLONIAL  IMMIGRATION 

from  Ireland;  Hugh  Ramsey,  John  Weirs  and  William 
Moore  £1000  for  381  passengers  from  Ireland  September 
15,  1737;  Capt.  Montgomery  and  Nathaniel  Bethune, 
£500  for  80  passengers  from  Ireland;  Capt.  Jackson  and 
Samuel  Dowse,  bond  of  £250  for  46  passengers  from  Ire- 
land; Sloop  Sea  Flower  with  65  passengers  from  Ireland. 
The  records  are  full  of  such  notices.  Of  14  ships  reported 
in  the  Boston  News  Letter  that  arrived  in  1718,  three  were 
known  to  have  come  from  Dublin  and  one  from  Water- 
ford;  while  in  1720  one  was  from  Cork  and  three  from 
Dublin.  Thus  the  immigrants  came  from  the  south  as 
well  as  from  the  north  of  Ireland.  They  introduced  the 
potato  into  New  England,  and — mark  this — they  intro- 
duced the  spinning  wheel,  considered  by  all  Americans  as 
a  peculiarly  New  England  institution,  and  the  manufacture 
of  linen.  For  this  we  have  the  testimony  of  Drake,  in 
his  "History  of  Boston,"  as  follows: 


"About  two  years  previous  to  this  (1718)  there  arrived 
in  the  country  a  large  colony  of  persons  from  in  and  about 
Londonderry  in  Ireland,  denominated  Scotch-Irish,  be- 
cause they  emigrated  originally  from  Scotland  to  Ireland. 
The  most  of  this  colony  settled  in  New  Hampshire,  but 
a  considerable  number  of  them  fixed  their  residence  in 
Boston.  These  emigrants  were  chiefly  manufacturers  of 
linen,  and  they  brought  their  utensils  for  that  purpose 
with  them.  The  foot  or  linen  wheel,  since  so  familiar  in 
the  households  of  New  England,  was  introduced  by  this 
colony  and  the  raising  of  flax  and  the  manufacture  of 
linen  cloth  was  looked  upon  as  of  great  importance  to  the 
country.  The  people  of  Boston  took  hold  of  the  matter 
with  great  earnestness.  The  subject  was  put  into  the 
warrant  for  a  town  meeting  September  28,  1720." 

Note. — The  Irish  also  introduced  the  potato  at  this  time. 
4  [47] 


IRISH  CONTRIBUTION  TO  AMERICA'S  INDEPENDENCE 

The  author  of  the  above  erroneously  refers  to  the 
colonists  as  "Scotch-Irish."  With  few  exceptions,  the 
families  of  these  colonists  had  lived  in  Ireland  for  at  least 
three  generations,  and  a  large  number  bore  Irish  names. 
In  any  case  they  left  Ireland  because  of  the  persecution 
and  unjust  laws  under  which  they  lived  while  there. 
That  they  were  Celtic  and  not  Anglo-Saxon  is  evident 
from  the  following  names  which  appear  on  a  petition  ad- 
dressed to  Governor  Shute  in  1718  by  some  of  the  colo- 
nists from  Londonderry  who  desired  to  locate  in  New 
Hampshire: 


Neal  McNeall  James  Kenedy 

James  Moore  John  McKeen 

Alex.  McGregore  Robert  McKeen 

Alex.  McNeall  Andrew  Patrick 

John  Morrison  James  McFee 

James  Cochran  Rich.  McLaughlen 

James  Morrison  Andrew  McFadden 

John  Cochran  James  McKerrell 

William  Cochran  Andrew  Fleming 

Daniel  McKerrell  Patrick  Orr 

Fergos  Kenedy  Daniel  Orr 

James  Gilmore  Alex.  McBride 

Arch.  McCook  William  Orr 

Edward  McKene  Samuel  McGivern 

Samuel  McMun  George  McAlester 

Thomas  McLaughlen  Robert  Neilson 

Lawrence  McLaughlen  Henry  Neille 

William  Boyle  Will  McAlben 

Benjamin  Boyle  John  McCan 


The  settlement  of  New  Hampshire  by  colonists  from 
the  North  of  Ireland  has  received  sufficient  mention  in 
American  history  to  be  well  known;  but  the  Irish  of  Lon- 
donderry, N.  H.,  constituted  only  an  insignificant  propor- 
tion of  the  Irish  colonists  who  came  to  other  parts  of  New 
England  and  to  the  other  colonies.  Irish  people  from  all 

[48] 


THE  IRISH  COLONIAL  IMMIGRATION 

parts  of  Ireland  settled  in  the  city  of  Boston  and  in  other 
parts  of  New  England,  from  the  coast  of  Maine  to  Lake 
Champlain.  In  1718  the  town  of  Worcester,  Mass., 
consisted  of  58  dwellings  and  200  inhabitants.  The  Rev. 
Edward  Fitzgerald,  a  Presbyterian  minister,  with  50 
families  from  Ireland,  settled  in  Worcester  and  doubled 
the  population.  The  town  of  Concord  was  founded  by 
emigrants  from  Ireland,  as  were  several  other  towns  in 
Massachusetts,  Connecticut,  and  New  Hampshire.  One 
of  the  original  settlers  of  Worcester  was  James  McClel- 
land, ancestor  of  General  Samuel  McClelland,  General 
Geo.  B.  McClelland,  and  of  the  former  Mayor  of  New 
York  City. 

Among  the  settlers  of  Pelham,  Mass.,  were  the  follow- 
ing colonists  from  Ireland: 

James  Clark  Duncan  McFarland 

John  Clark  John  Mclntyre 

Robert  Ferrell  Robert  McLem 

Robert  Forbush  Daniel  McMains 

Patrick  Gregory  James  McPherson 

John  Hamilton  John  Moore 

John  Lecore  John  Murray 

Win.  McCarter  Robert  Patrick 

Thomas  McClanathan  Edward  Savage 

John  McClanathan  William  Sloan 

All  the  above  names  are  as  prevalent  in  Ireland  as  in 
Scotland.  The  Savages  were  in  Ireland  as  early  as  the 
fourteenth  century,  and  the  Edward  Savage  above  men- 
tioned was  the  grandfather  of  the  celebrated  portrait 
painter  who  lived  in  Philadelphia  and  painted  a  portrait 
of  Washington. 

Among  the  colonial  settlers  in  the  region  now  called 
Vermont  were  families  with  the  following  distinctively 
Irish  names:  Burke,  Barrett,  Kennedy,  McCoy,  Hogan, 

[49] 


IRISH  CONTRIBUTION  TO  AMERICA'S  INDEPENDENCE 

Dunn,  Larkin,  McConnell,  Moore,  Garvey,  Goff,  Carey, 
McCarra,  Duane.  The  Duanes  owned  63,000  acres  of 
land,  and  the  first  member  of  the  family  in  America  was 
Anthony  Duane,  who  was  born  in  the  County  Galway, 
Ireland.  Other  settlers  in  Vermont  from  Ireland  were 
Archibald  Stark,  father  of  General  John  Stark;  Matthew 
Lyon,  from  the  County  Wicklow,  who  by  his  eloquence 
swung  the  Green  Mountain  Boys  of  Vermont  into  line 
early  in  the  Revolution;  Captain  Magennis,  who  com- 
manded the  New  Hampshire  Militia  and  is  given  credit 
for  turning  the  fortunes  of  the  day  in  the  attack  on  Long 
Point,  Lake  George,  March,  1757,  French  and  Indian  War; 
and  many  other  Irishmen  whose  sons  and  grandsons 
became  famous  in  American  History. 

The  city  of  Boston  contained  a  large  Irish  population 
in  colonial  days  and  they  were  by  no  means  all  "Scotch- 
Irish  from  Londonderry."  The  Records  of  the  Boston 
Selectmen  already  referred  to  contain  the  names  of  per- 
sons to  whom  licenses  as  "City  Porters"  were  issued  in  the 
year  1738.  There  are  16  names  in  the  list  and  12  of  these 
are  as  follows:  John  Whaland,  Robert  McMillion,  Patrick 
Goffe,  Paul  Bryan,  Thomas  O'Brien,  Patrick  Bourke, 
John  Keefe,  Jeremiah  Maccarty,  Timothy  Harney,  Ed- 
ward Kelly,  Thomas  Pheland,  James  Collins.  The  same 
records  contain  many  items  of  the  following  character: 

"John  McGuire  appeared  and  stated  he  had  in  his 
house,  Daniel  Griffith,  Mariner,  John  Welch,  Mariner, 
James  Murfey,  Mariner  and  Joyner,  Cornelius  Fling, 
Victualer." 

"Sarah  McLucas,  given  charity." 

"John  Maccanis  (McGinis)  wife  and  four  children 
arrived  from  Ireland  June  9, 1719." 

[50] 


THE  IRISH  COLONIAL  IMMIGRATION 

''John  Mackmaster,  wife  and  four  children,  who  arrived 
from  Ireland  June  1722. 

"Dennis  Sullivant  and  wife,  lately  came  from  South 
Carolina,  is  going  to  return  to  Ireland  or  England  in  about 
five  weeks." 

In  1733  an  Irish  Church  was  shown  upon  the  map  of  the 
<city;  in  1737,  on  St.  Patrick's  Day,  the  Charitable  Irish 
Society  of  Boston  was  organized;  the  Boston  Tea  Party 
met  at  an  inn  kept  by  a  man  named  John  Duggan,  and  the 
tea  was  thrown  into  the  harbor  off  Griffin's  Wharf;  and 
Patrick  Carr  was  one  of  the  men  killed  by  the  British 
soldiers  in  the  Boston  Massacre. 

The  Irish  Presbyterians  formed  extensive  settlements, 
as  a  body,  in  New  Hampshire  and  in  the  settled  portions 
of  Massachusetts.  The  Irish  Catholics,  however,  sought 
refuge  as  individuals  in  the  remoter  regions  of  the  province. 
The  territory  of  Maine,  for  example,  while  a  part  of  the 
Massachusetts  Bay  Colony,  was  to  a  large  extent  free  from 
the  jurisdiction  of  the  Massachusetts  government — so 
much  so  that  Governor  Winthrop  complained:  "They 
ran  a  different  course  from  us,  both  in  their  ministry  and 
in  their  civil  administration,  for  they  had  lately  made 
Acomentious  (a  poor  village)  a  corporation  and  had  made 
a  tailor  their  mayor,  and  had  entertained  one  Hull,  an 
excommunicated  person,  and  very  contentious,  for  their 
minister."*  Thus,  in  the  character  of  the  people  of  Maine, 
we  see  the  beginning  of  American  democracy.  They  had 
little  of  the  intolerant,  overbearing  spirit  of  the  Puritan, 
and  they  had  the  audacity  to  elect  as  mayor  a  man  who 
worked  for  his  living.  The  Irish  settled  extensively  in 
Maine.  The  town  of  Berwick,  one  of  the  earliest  settle- 
*  Bolton,  "Scotch-Irish  Pioneers." 
[51] 


IRISH  CONTRIBUTION  TO  AMERICA'S  INDEPENDENCE 

ments,  was  probably  named  in  honor  of  the  Duke  of  Ber- 
wick, one  of  the  commanders  of  the  Irish  forces  in  the 
Revolution  of  1691.  Among  the  Irish  who  lived  in  the 
town  was  Owen  Sullivan,  born  in  Limerick,  Ireland,  during 
the  siege  of  1691,  who  was  the  father  of  John  Sullivan, 
member  of  the  Continental  Congress  in  1774  and  a  Briga- 
dier General  of  the  Continental  Army  in  1775  at  the  age 
of  thirty-three;  of  James  Sullivan,  Member  of  the  Provin- 
cial Congress  of  Massachusetts  1775,  judge  of  the  Superior 
Court  1776,  Attorney  General,  Governor  of  Massachu- 
setts, and  founder  of  the  town  of  Limerick,  Maine,  whose 
son,  John  Langdon  Sullivan,  born  1777,  invented  a  steam 
tow-boat  for  which  he  received  a  patent  in  1814,  in  prefer- 
ence to  Robert  Fulton,  who  applied  for  one  at  the  same 
time.* 

Another  Irish  settler  in  Maine  was  Maurice  O'Brien, 
born  in  Cork,  whose  five  sons,  on  hearing  of  the  battle  of 
Lexington,  with  a  few  volunteers  captured  a  British 
armed  schooner  in  Machias  Bay,  May  11,  1775 — the  first 
naval  victory  and  the  first  blow  struck  on  water  in  the  war  for 
independence.  The  leader  of  this  expedition  was  Jere- 
miah O'Brien,  who  was  born  in  Scarboro',  1740,  and  was 
afterwards  a  captain  in  the  Massachusetts  Navy.  An- 
other member  of  the  family,  Richard  O'Brien,  born  1758, 
commanded  a  privateer  in  the  Revolution,  and  was  an 
officer  on  the  brig  Jefferson  in  1781,  when  he  was  captured 
by  the  Dey  of  Algiers  and  enslaved  for  many  years. f 

*  Appleton's  American  Biography. 

t  Harper's  Cyclopedia  of  American  History. 


[52] 


THE  IRISH  IN  PENNSYLVANIA 

THE  extent  of  the  Irish  colonial  population  in  America 
is  perhaps  best  illustrated  in  the  history  of  their  set- 
tlement and  activity  in  the  province  of  Pennsylva- 
nia. Penn  received  his  grant  of  the  province  and  his  pro- 
prietary charter  from  King  James  II.  His  father  owned  an 
estate  in  Cork,  Ireland,  where  the  eminent  Quaker  spent 
much  of  his  time  as  manager  of  the  estate  before  coming  to 
America.  He  manned  a  vessel  that  brought  him  to  Amer- 
ica mostly  with  men  that  he  secured  in  the  city  of  Cork. 
His  secretary,  James  Logan,  was  born  in  Lisburn,  County 
Antrim,  and  Thomas  Holme,  his  Surveyor-General,  who 
laid  out  the  city  of  Philadelphia,  was  born  in  Waterford. 
According  to  a  recent  authority,  "the  actual  treaty  for  the 
lands  of  the  present  Philadelphia  and  adjacent  county, 
out  to  the  Susquehanna,  was  made  in  the  year  1685  by 
Thomas  Holme,  as  president  of  the  Council  in  the  absence 
of  William  Penn  who  had  gone  to  England."*  William 
Welsh,  who  was  one  of  Perm's  councillors,  negotiated  a 
treaty  with  the  Indians  of  northwestern  New  York  in 

1683,  and  he  represented  the  Governor  of  Pennsylvania  in 
negotiations  with  Governor  Dongan,  of  New  York,  in 

1684,  relative  to  Penn's  quarrel  with  Lord  Baltimore. 
The  Irish  Quakers  who  came  to  Pennsylvania  formed  so 
large  a  proportion  of  the  colonists  that  the  "Irish  Quaker 

*  Appleton's  "American  Biographies." 
[53] 


IRISH  CONTRIBUTION  TO  AMERICA'S  INDEPENDENCE 

Immigration  to  Pennsylvania"  is  the  subject  of  a  volume 
of  more  than  500  pages. 

In  1700  Pennsylvania  and  Delaware  together  had  a 
population  of  about  20,000.  While  the  inhabitants  of 
Pennsylvania  were  chiefly  Quakers  at  that  time,  a  large 
number  of  Irish  Catholics  and  Protestants  must  have 
settled  in  the  Province  in  the  seventeenth  century,  for 
Perm  offered  freedom  of  worship  to  all  settlers,  and  be- 
cause of  his  well-known  toleration  for  Catholics  he  was 
himself  sometimes  accused  of  being  a  "Papist."  In  1729 
an  Irish  lady  of  some  means,  with  a  number  of  her  tenantry 
from  Ireland,  settled  near  what  is  now  Nicetown,  Phila- 
delphia, and  established  a  Roman  Catholic  chapel  on  her 
estate.*  About  the  same  time  the  Irish  were  coming  to 
Philadelphia  in  such  large  numbers  as  to  alarm  the  Quaker 
and  English  inhabitants,  for  in  a  statement  to  the  Council 
in  1729  the  Deputy  Governor  of  the  Province  said: 

"It  looks  as  if  Ireland  is  to  send  all  its  inhabitants 
hither,  for  last  week  not  less  than  six  ships  arrived,  and 
every  day  two  or  three  arrive  also.  The  common  fear  is 
that  if  they  thus  continue  to  come,  they  will  make  them- 
selves masters  of  the  province."f 

That  the  English  inhabitants  of  the  city  had  cause  for 
alarm  at  their  rapidly  diminishing  majority  is  indicated  in 
the  following  table  of  the  immigrants  arriving  in  Pennsyl- 
vania during  the  year  ending  December,  1729:  English 
and  Welsh,  267;  Scotch,  43;  German  Palatines,  243; 
Irish,  56554  In  1728  there  arrived  at  New  Castle, 
Delaware,  4500  persons,  most  of  whom  came  from  Ire- 

*  Watson's  "Annals  of  Philadelphia."         t  Ibid. 
\  Gordon's  "History  of  Pennsylvania." 
[54] 


THE  IRISH  IN  PENNSYLVANIA 

land.*  By  1772,  the  Irish  immigration  had  reached  such 
proportions  that  3500  persons  from  Ireland  arrived  in 
Philadelphia  during  the  first  two  weeks  in  August  of  that 
year.f  Before  the  Revolution  the  prophecy  of  the  Deputy 
Governor  had  been  fulfilled,  and  the  Irish  and  their  de- 
scendants had  indeed  become  proprietors  of  the  province. 
In  a  measure  this  was  fortunate  for  the  colonies,  as  the 
principles  of  the  Quakers  prohibited  their  taking  an  active 
part  in  the  war,  and  the  Tory  sentiment  among  the  Eng- 
lish residents  of  the  province  was  notorious. 

For  confirmation  of  the  claim  that  the  Irish  population 
of  the  province  was  large  we  need  only  examine  the  colo- 
nial marriage  records,  lists  of  soldiers  in  the  colonial 
militia  companies,  and  lists  of  taxables,  for  Irish  names. 
In  Philadelphia  the  marriage  records  of  all  Protestant 
churches  contain  old-fashioned  Irish  names  in  abundance. 
Most  of  the  bearers  of  these  names  were  undoubtedly  of 
Catholic  birth,  but  in  many  cases  their  marriage  in  Protes- 
tant churches  was  due,  despite  the  liberal  attitude  of  Perm 
himself  in  founding  of  his  colony,  to  restrictive  laws 
against  the  performance  of  the  marriage  ceremony  by 
Catholic  clergymen.  The  Pennsylvania  Archives,  second 
series,  vol.  ix,  contain  the  marriage  records  of  Philadelphia 
churches  covering  certain  periods  before  the  Revolution. 
On  the  list  of  the  First  Presbyterian  Church,  1702  to  1745, 
occur  the  following  distinctively  Irish  names: 

Mary  Brian  and  John  Smith 
Mary  Bryan  and  William  Love 
Henry  Bryan  and  Dinah  Philips 
Margaret  Bryan  and  William  Porter 

*  Watson's  "Annals,"  p.  266. 

t  Spencer's  "History  of  the  United  States." 

[55] 


IRISH  CONTRIBUTION  TO  AMERICA'S  INDEPENDENCE 

Patrick  Caffry  and  Esther  Rice 

Richard  Cahill  and  Eliz.  Burrege 

John  Callahan  and  Eliz.  Sweet 

John  Callahan  and  Winifred  Caseburn 

Edward  Callahan  and  Mary  Rice 

Roger  Cane  and  Eliz.  Welsh 

Rose  Cane  and  Adam  Little 

Jannet  Cannon  and  Geo.  Calahone 

Joseph  Cannon  and  Rachel  Gethram 

Margaret  Carey  and  John  McMicken 

Jane  Carnaghan  and  Josias  Brown 

Abraham  Carel  and  Kath.  Van  Pelt 

Richard  Carrel  and  Grace  Williams 

Anne  Carroll  and  Geo.  Hawkins 

Daniel  Carty  and  Margaret  Lavender 

Miles  Carty  and  Joan  Dickey 

Darby  Carty  and  Hannah  Richardson 

Thomas  Carty  and  Anne  Haimer 

Jane  Gary  and  George  Brown 

John  Cleary  and  Jane  Collins 

Katherine  Coghran  and  Francis  Willson 

Charles  Coile  and  Anne  Price 

Mary  Magdalena  Colerain  and  Christian  Taylor 

Jacob  Coney  and  Barbara  Van  Clinkenbaugh 

Mary  Coney  and  Joseph  Walton 

Darby  Connelly  and  Jane  Price 

John  Conner  and  Mary  Rambp 

William  Conner  and  Mary  Quill 

Michael  Connolly  and  Anne  Clingman 

John  Connor  and  Mary  Foreman 

John  Conway  and  Susanna  Bound 

William  Conway  and  Mary  McAnally 

Daniel  Daily  and  Mary  Hill 

Eleanor  Daily  and  Andrew  McBroom 

Joanna  Daily  and  John  Murphy 

Katherine  Daily  and  Duncan  Campbell 

Mary  Daily  and  Robert  Fleming 

Thomas  Daily  and  Mary  Harden 

Daniel  Donayin  and  Anne  Wood 

Peter  Donavin  and  Eliz.  Wright 

John  Donelan  and  Eliz.  Parker 

John  Dorkarty  and  Susanna  Seinchy 

Jane  Drogheda  and  Thomas  Jones 

Katherine  Drogheda  and  Richards  Warkins 

Kath.  Eagin  and  Patrick  Daveny 

James  Farrel  and  Jane  Heath 

John  Farel  and  Honour  Farel 

William  Farrell  and  Mary  Barroe 

[561 


THE  IRISH  IN  PENNSYLVANIA 

Mary  Flanekin  and  Edward  Swinney 
Samuel  Foley  and  Mary  Sinkler 
James  Kerrel  and  Dinah  VanKirk 
James  Laughlin  and  Jane  Jones 
Rebecca  Mackinaire  and  Peter  Jackson 
John  Mackneal  and  Martha  Floyd 
Mary  Magenny  and  James  Kelley 
Margaret  Mahaffy  and  William  Walker 
Honour  Malenny  and  Michael  Fleming 
Edward  M  alone  and  Agnes  Kider 
Jane  McCane  and  Hugh  Gunning 
Mary  McCannin  and  Samuel  Low 
Margaret  McCarty  and  Thomas  Holmes 
Jane  McClenaghan  and  Job  Guthrey 
Agness  McClenan  and  John  Griffith 
Isabel  McCloghlin  and  Abram  Russel 
Martha  McConnell  and  James  Little 
Patrick  McCormick  and  Blanch  Hughes 
Mary  McGeorge  and  George  Lewis 
Margaret  McGown  and  Joseph  Frazier 
Susanna  McKelan  and  James  Steward 
Elizabeth  McKane  and  Joseph  Ken- 
Sarah  McKenny  and  Walter  Bryson 
Jane  McMurran  and  John  Forsyth 
Michael  McDonald  and  Bridget  Kerr 
Margaret  Meals  and  Daniel  Dismond 
Jane  Mullegan  and  John  Wayne 
Mary  Mullin  and  William  Hart 
John  Murphy  and  Joanna  Daily 
Katherine  Murphy  and  John  McPack 
Eleanor  O' Bryan  and  Robert  Baker 
Katherine  O'Bryan  and  Edward  Winter 
John  O'Bryant  and  Mary  Dukeminer 
Anne  O'Burn  and  Thomas  Holland 
Peter  Okely  and  Mary  Asspn 
Joseph  Oregh  and  Cath.  Kirk 
Mary  Pendergrass  and  James  Frazier 
Eleanor  Reiley  and  Henry  Early 
Charles  Reily  and  Isabel  Easly 
Joshua  Reily  and  Rebecca  Doyle 
Timothy  Sulliman  and  Rose  Waters 
Mary  Sullivan  and  John  Fleming 
Dennis  Sullivan  and  Elizabeth  Caldwell 
Bartholomew  Welsh  and  Mary  Kirk 
Elizabeth  Welsh  and  Roger  Cane 
Mary  Welsh  and  Abraham  Laybrook 
Rebecca  WTelsh  and  John  Lockhart 

[571 


IRISH  CONTRIBUTION  TO  AMERICA'S  INDEPENDENCE 

On  the  above  list,  in  addition  to  the  names  given,  the 
name  Dunn  occurs  3  times,  Fitzgerald  6  times,  Fleming  5, 
Kelley  11,  Kilpatrick  3,  Martin  11,  and  there  are  95 
names  beginning  with  "Me". 

The  marriage  lists  of  Old  Swedes  Church,  1750  to  1810, 
contain  a  very  much  larger  proportion  of  Irish  names. 
There  are  486  names  beginning  with  "Me,"  as  well  as 
every  other  form  of  Irish  names,  of  which  the  following  is 
an  indication: 


Mary  Branagen  and  William  Erskin 
Michael  Branin  and  Barbara  Evans 
Patrick  Brawley  and  Sarah  Thompson 
Patrick  Brian  and  Margaret  Smith 
Timothy  Brian  and  Isabella  Dickinson 
Roger  Brogen  and  Elizabeth  Warren 
Sarah  Brogen  and  Lewis  Moliere 
Patrick  Cacharin  and  Gracey  McNeal 
Mary  Carrigan  and  Charles  Domonick 
Ann  Cartey  and  Patrick  Dowen 
Patrick  Cashaday  and  Catharine  Baldwin 
Hugh  Cassaday  and  Rachel  Richards 
Ann  Cassel  and  Dennis  Leary 
James  Colgun  and  Mary  Flannagan 
Catherine  Condon  and  Michael  Murphy 
Patrick  Condren  and  Mart  Latterson 
Dennis  Conneley  and  Mary  Kilkenney 
Neal  Connolly  and  Mary  Macumtire 
Margaret  Connoway  and  Thomas  Haley 
Patrick  Conrey  and  Nancy  Early 
Biddy  Devine  and  John  Boggs 
Patrick  Doran  and  Jane  Long 
Patrick  Fares  and  Elec.  Garvey 
Elizabeth  Fairies  and  James  Cochran 
Brigith  Fegen  and  Chris.  Fitzgerald 
Patrick  Gallenogh  and  Susanna  Brown 
Patrick  Glyn  and  Mary  Christie 
Patrick  Kempsey  and  Eliz.  Davis 
John  Logan  and  Jane  O'Connor 
Patrick  Loghan  and  Margaret  Docherty 


[58] 


THE  IRISH  IN  PENNSYLVANIA 

On  the  same  list  the  names  following  occur  the  number 
of  times  shown: 

Barry,  Bary,  15 

Braidy,  Brady,  9 

Brannon,  6 

Burk,  Burke,  19 

Burn,  Burnes,  14 

Cahan,  Cahil,  Cahill 

Cain,  Cane,  7 

Callaghan,  Callahan,  Callan,  7 

Cannon  and  Canon,  6 

Carrell,  Caril,  Carill,  Carol,  6 

Carney,  10 

Carrr  22—2  Michaels  and  2  Patricks 

Cassidy,  Cavenaugh,  Cavener,  Cavenough 

Connefly,  4 

Connar,  Connard,  Conner,  Connor,  19 

Connel,  Conell,  Connelly,  Connerly,  Connil,  10 

Conway,  3 

Corran,  Corridon,  Corrigan,  Corrill,  Coughlin,  Courtney,  Curin 

Daugherty,  2,  Daley,  2,  Delaney,  7,  Dempsey,  5,  Dennis 

Deyer,  2,  Dillon,  2,  Docherty,  2,  Doharty,  2,  Doil,  Doile,  Doyle,  15 

Donavan,  Donevan,  Donovan,  5,  Donohus,  Donohow,  Donohoo,  4 

Dorian,  Dornan,  Dougan 

Dougharty,  21,  Donlin,  Dyer,  Dwire,  Dyar,  Dyer 

Egan,  Eagan,  Egins 

Farran,  2,  Fanrel,  5,  Ferrell,  4 

Fitzgerald,  12,  Fitzpatrick,  3 

Flaherty,  Flanigan,  Flaniken,  Flannigan,  Flannagam 

Ford,  15 

Gallagher,  3,  Galespy,  Gillaspy,  2 

Gilmar,  Gilmer, -Gillmore,  8 

Griffen,  Griffin,  5 

Hagarthy,  Hagerty,  Haggerty 

Hagens,  Haley,  Haney,  5,  Hanighan,  Hanley,  Hennesey 

Higgins,  5,  Hogan,  6 

Kaley,  2,  Kane  ,2,  Karrigan,  Kavanagh,  Kean,  3,  Keen,  11,  Keane 

Keley,  Kelley,  Kelly,  23 

Kenneday,  3,  Kennedy,  10,  Kenney,  2 

Laffarty,  Lafferty,  3 

Madden,  7 

Maguire,  3,  Maquire,  Mahon,  Mahoney,  Mahney 

Patrick  Mahney,  Patrick  Mahoney,  Timothy  Mahoney,  Anthony 

Mahony 

Maloney,  4,  Mooney,  Moraty,  Moriaty 
Mullan,  16,  Morphy,  Morphey,  Morphy,  Murphey,  26 

[59] 


IRISH  CONTRIBUTION  TO  AMERICA'S  INDEPENDENCE 

Neal,  Nealy,  O'Neal,  O'Neil,  18  times 

O'Bryan  (Obrayne,  O'Brian,  Obrian,  Obrien,  Ibryon,  etc.),  17  times 

O'Connor,  5 

O'Daniel,  O'Dannil,  O'Dear,  Odonnelly,  O'Donnel 

O'Hagerty,  O'Hara,  Ohara,  O'Harra 

O'Lary,  Onie,  Onor,  Orane 

Timothy  Organ 

Quinn,  Quin,  Quinlin 

Reighley,  Reiley,  Reily,  Riley,  7,  Ryan,  9 

Sweeney,  Swiney 

Sullevan,  Sullivan  8,  Swayney,  Sweaney 

Welch,  7,  Welsh,  16,  Walsh,  Whelan,  3 

The  Marriages  of  Christ  Church  (Episcopal)  at  the  same 
period  contain  332  names,  beginning  with  Me  and  29 
beginning  with  "O'  ",  14  Bryan  and  Bryant,  37  Kelly  and 
Kelley,  17  Kennedy,  12  Ryan,  10  Sullivan,  and  10  Welsh, 
together  with  many  other  names  of  evident  Irish  origin. 

Persons  bearing  such  names  as  appear  in  the  foregoing 
lists  were  unquestionably  of  Irish  birth  or  extraction;  but 
there  were  thousands  of  men  in  Philadelphia,  who,  while 
of  Irish  birth  or  descent  and  enthusiastic  Irishmen,  bore 
names  that  would  not  be  classed  as  Irish  by  the  average 
reader.  This  is  best  illustrated  in  the  membership  of  the 
Friendly  Sons  of  St.  Patrick,  a  Society  organized  in  Phila- 
delphia March  17,  1771.  Active  membership  was  confined 
to  men  of  Irish  birth  or  extraction,  and  the  Society  was 
evidently  the  successor  of  the  Hibernian  Club,  which  was 
holding  meetings  as  early  as  1749.  On  March  17,  1781,  the 
active  members  of  the  Friendly  Sons  were  as  follow: 

Thomas  Barclay  John  Murray 

George  Campbell  John  Donaldson 

William  West  Matthew  Mease 

Benjamin  Fuller  James  Caldwell 

J.  M.  Nesbitt  D.  H.  Conyngham 

George  Davis  John  Barclay 

George  Henry  John  Nixon 

[60] 


THE  IRISH  IN  PENNSYLVANIA 

Samuel  Caldwell  Commodore  John  Barry 

John  Brown  James  Crawford 

John  Mitchell  George  Meade 

Sharp  Delaney  Thomas  Fitzimmons 

Andrew  Caldwell  Col.  John  Shee 

Gen.  Anthony  Wayne  William  West,  Jr. 

Blair  McClenachan  James  Mease 

John  Dunlap  Tench  Francis 

John  Mease  Alex.  Nesbitt 

George  Hughes  John  Patton 

John  Mitchell,  Jr.  Gen.  Ephraim  Blaine 

Gen.  Stephen  Moylan  Francis  Johnston 

Handle  Mitchell  Gen.  William  Irvine 

John  Boyle  Col.  Richard  Butler 

John  Patterson  Robert  Gray 

James  Moylan  Joseph  Wilson 

Every  one  of  the  gentlemen  above  named  was  either 
born  in  Ireland  or  was  descended  from  a  man  born  in 
Ireland;  and  they  were  not  what  is  now  commonly  called 
"Scotch-Irish."  Gen.  Stephen  Moylan  was  born  in 
County  Cork,  was  a  Catholic  and  the  first  president  of  the 
Society;  George  Meade  was  a  son  of  Robert  Meade,  an 
Irish  Catholic  refugee  from  Limerick,  Ireland.  The  name 
is  derived  from  O'Meagh,  and  18  properties  owned  by 
persons  of  the  name  Meade  were  confiscated  by  Cromwell 
and  are  mentioned  in  his  book  of  forfeitures.  (See  Bache's 
Life  of  Gen.  George  Gordon  Meade,  page  2,  and  the  Life 
of  Richard  Meade.)  Col.  Richard  Butler  was  born  in  the 
Parish  of  St.  Bride's  Dublin,  and  his  father  in  Kilkenney. 
While  Butler  is  not  an  Irish  name,  the  family  had  been  in 
Ireland  for  several  centuries,  and  played  an  important 
part  in  the  rebellions  against  English  rule  in  Ireland. 

The  First  City  Troop  of  Philadelphia,  now  one  of  the 
most  exclusive  military  organizations  in  the  country,  was 
organized  November  1774,  as  the  Light  Horse  of  the  City 
of  Philadelphia.  Of  the  twenty-eight  men  who  comprised 

[61] 


IRISH  CONTRIBUTION  TO  AMERICA'S  INDEPENDENCE 

the  Troop  on  the  date  of  its  organization,  ten  were  born  in 
Ireland  and  were  members  of  the  Friendly  Sons  of  St. 
Patrick,  namely;  James  and  John  Mease,  John  Boyle, 
John  Mitchell,  George  Campbell,  Samuel  Campbell, 
Samuel  and  Andrew  Caldwell,  George  Fullerton,  John 
Dunlap,  and  Blair  McClenachan.  Of  the  remaining 
eighteen  members,  William  West,  Jr.,  was  the  son  of  an 
Irishman,  and  it  is  probable  others  were  of  Irish  birth  or 
descent,  but  the  eleven  already  mentioned  were  members 
of  the  Friendly  Sons,  and  their  nationality  is  therefore 
known.  Among  the  eighty-eight  men  who  were  members 
of  the  Troop  during  the  period  of  the  Revolution,  thirty 
were  members  of  the  Friendly  Sons  and  represented  only  a 
small  proportion  of  the  men  of  Irish  blood  who  would  have 
been  likely  to  join  such  a  troop. 

Many  other  names,  well  known  in  Philadelphia  society, 
were  borne  by  colonial  immigrants  from  Ireland.  Thomas 
Lea  came  from  Dublin  before  1757,  and  his  son  was  one 
of  the  twelve  founders  of  the  Hibernian  Society;  George 
Fullerton  was  born  in  Ireland  and  joined  the  Friendly 
Sons  in  1771;  John  Frazer  was  born  in  County  Monaghan, 
Ireland,  came  to  Philadelphia  in  1735,  and  was  the  father 
of  Gen.  Persifor  Frazer  of  the  Revolution  and  the  great- 
grandfather of  Dr.  Persifor  Frazer,  the  well  known  phy- 
sician; William  West,  ancestor  of  the  West  family  of 
Philadelphia,  was  born  in  Sligo,  Ireland.  On  the  other 
hand,  the  designer  and  builder  of  many  of  the  most  im- 
portant buildings  in  Philadelphia  during  and  after  the 
Revolutionary  period,  "a  man  of  marked  ability  as  an 
architect  and  at  that  time  thought  to  be  the  best  in  this 
country,"  was  an  Irish  Catholic  named  Nicholas  Fagan, 
who  was  born  in  Dublin  and  came  to  Philadelphia  in  boy- 

[62] 


THE  IRISH  IN  PENNSYLVANIA 

hood.     He  designed  the  First  Church  of  St.  Augustine, 
Philadelphia.* 

Andrew  Porter,  whose  father  came  from  Ireland,  opened 
a  mathematical  school  in  Philadelphia  in  1767,  and  his 
grandson  became  Governor  of  Pennsylvania.  Rev. 
Francis  Allison,  the  first  vice-provost  of  the  University  of 
Pennsylvania,  emigrated  from  Ireland  in  1735.  The 
parents  of  Thomas  McKean,  Chief  Justice  of  Pennsyl- 
vania for  22  years  from  1777,  and  Governor  of  Pennsyl- 
vania in  1799,  were  both  born  in  Ireland. 

It  is  evident  from  the  foregoing  that  the  Irish  held  a 
position  of  considerable  prominence  in  Philadelphia  during 
the  Colonial  period.  The  men  who  comprised  the  Friendly 
Sons  of  St.  Patrick  were  all  well  to  do,  for  each  member 
had  to  provide  himself  with  the  Medal  of  the  Society,  at 
a  cost  of  $15,  and  the  fine  for  absence  from  the  meeting 
on  March  17th  of  each  year  was  $1.80  and  from  other 
meetings  $1.25.  It  was  essentially  an  Irish  society,  whose 
badge  contained  on  one  side  a  representation  of  Hibernia 
and  America,  with  Liberty  in  the  center  joining  their 
hands,  and  the  inscription  "Unite,"  while  on  the  other 
side  was  a  picture  of  St.  Patrick,  holding  a  cross,  trampling 
on  a  snake. 

While  the  Irish  were  numerous  in  Philadelphia,  they 
were  still  more  numerous  in  other  parts  of  the  province. 
Local  historians  erroneously  class  them  as  "Scotch-Irish," 
but  as  the  names  of  most  of  them  were  distinctively  Irish, 
it  is  difficult  to  comprehend  why  they  should  be  so  classed. 
Let  us  take,  as  an  illustration,  the  list  of  inhabitants  of 
Fort  Pitt,  Pa.,  for  the  year  1760,  when  the  village  numbered 
149  inhabitants  outside  of  the  army.  In  this  list  occur  the 
following  Irish  names: 

*  Watson's  "Annals  of  Philadelphia." 
5  [63] 


IRISH  CONTRIBUTION  TO  AMERICA'S  INDEPENDENCE 

Ephraim  Blane  James  Mulligan 

Charles  Boyle  Sinnott 

James  Bradden  Jacob  Sinnott 

Andrew  Byarly  Susannah  Sinnott 

Philip  Byarly  Thomas  Welsh 

William  Bryan  Bridget  Winsor 

John  Coleman  Patrick  Feagan 

Patrick  Cunningham  Thomas  McCollum 

John  Daily  George  McSwine 

Sarah  Daily  John  and  Philip  Sinnott 

William  Downy  Margaret  and  Rebecca  Boyle 

Patrick  McCarthy  Margaret  Coghran 

Neil  McCollum  Susan  Daily 

Hugh  McSwine  Mary  McSwine 

Susannah  McSwine 

In  addition  to  the  foregoing,  there  were  George  Carr, 
John  Finley,  William  McAllister,  John  McClure,  John 
McKee,  who  were  undoubtedly  Irishmen  with  Scotch 
names.  John  Finley  was  known  to  have  been  born  in  the 
North  of  Ireland,  and  Burke's  "Landed  Gentry"  shows 
that  a  Robert  Finlay  fought  for  Queen  Mary  and  on  her 
defeat  fled  to  Ireland  in  1568.  Unquestionably,  a  number 
of  the  other  inhabitants,  bearing  English-sounding  names, 
were  also  Irish.  In  the  census  of  Fort  Pitt  for  1761 — 
house-owners  only — occur  the  following  Irish  names  addi- 
tional to  those  already  given: 

Thomas  Carney  Dennis  McLaughlin 

William  Cassady  Richard  McMahan 

John  Craven  Joseph  McMurray 

George  Croghan  Patrick  McQuaid 

Dennis  Drogharty  John  Neal 

Dennis  Hall  Christopher  Negley 

Hugh  Henry  John  Welch 

There  is  no  mistaking  Dennis  Hall,  but  if  his  name  had 
been  John  Hall,  he  would  have  been  omitted  from  the  list, 
even  though  he  might  have  been  of  Irish  birth. 

[64] 


THE  IRISH  IN  PENNSYLVANIA 


The  lists  of  Taxpayers  in  Dauphin  County,  1750, 
printed  in  the  Historical  Sketch  of  Dauphin  County, 
include  the  following  Irish  names: 


Derry  Township 
James  McKee 
Patrick  Down 
Charles  Neely 
Andrew  Morrison 
John  Kerr 
David  McNair 
Michael  Houry 
John  Welsh 
Hugh  Hayes 
John  McCord 
David  McCord 
Leonard  Devine 
John  McCulloch 
Charles  Conway 
Andrew  Moore 
Thomas  Mackey 
Robert  McClure 
John  McQueen 
Niel  McAllister 
Neal  Dougherty 
Thomas  Logan 
John  McAllister 
John  McClelland 
Andrew  Rowan 
John  Kerr 
Duncan  McDonnell 
Mr.  McClan 
Patrick  Kelly 
William  Hayes 
John  Cochran 
John  McColloch 


Paxton  Township 

Robert  Dugan 
James  McKnight 
William  McCalley 
George  Gillaspy 
Alex.  McCay 
Patrick  Gillespy 
Thomas  McArthur 
Robert  Curry 
John  Neal 
John  Dougherty 
John  Daily 
William  Calhoun 
Thomas  McCormick 
Andrew  Cochran 
William  Kirkpatrick 
Peter  Fleming 
Kennedy  Kanix 
Rich.  McClure 
H.  McKinney 
Thomas  Dugan 
Timothy  McKnight 
H.  McElroy 
Timothy  Shaw 
Matthew  Jordan 
John  Welsh 
John  McKnight 
Patrick  Kinney 


Hanover  Township 


James  McCreight 
Thomas  McQuire 
John  McCord 
Wm.  McClenahan 
David  McClenahan 
Daniel  Shaw 
John  McCavitt 
James  McCavitt 


Mr.  McCowen 
Thomas  McClure 
William  Barnet 
Francis  McClure 
Michael  Neal 
John  McCormick 
James  Finney 
John  McNealey 


[65 


IRISH  CONTRIBUTION  TO  AMERICA'S  INDEPENDENCE 

James  McConnell  John  Kansey 

Charles  McClure  James  McCorey 

John  McClure  Dennis  Kerril 

Patrick  Gracey  John  Sloan 

Michael  Wallace  Andrew  McKeehan 

James  Sloan  Patrick  Brown 

Walter  McFarland  Antony  McElrath 

Barnet  McNight  Adam  McNeeley 

Hugh  McGowen  John  McClure 

Edward  McMurray  Patrick  Bowen 
Jacob  McCormick 

In  the  above  list,  it  is  probable  "Patrick  Brown"  and 
"Patrick  Bowen"  were  Irish,  but  if  their  names  had  been 
"James,"  they  would  not  have  been  included  and  thus  two 
Irishmen  would  have  been  missed,  as  many  others  are 
when  an  attempt  is  made  to  select  them  by  name.  One 
can  always  be  sure  of  a  man's  origin  if  he  has  an  Irish  name, 
but  one  with  an  English  name  might  be  Irish,  Scotch, 
German,  Swedish,  or  Russian. 

The  following  men  with  Irish  names  received  licenses 
in  the  State  of  Pennsylvania  as  Indian  traders  between 
1720  and  1758: 

Patrick  Boyd,  Lancaster  Co.,  1730 

Lawrence  Burke,  Wyoming,  1758 

Thomas  Burke,  employe  of  John  Martin,  1750 

George  Connell,  Chester  Co.,  1749 

Charles  Conner,  Chester  Co.,  1730 

Peter  Corbet,  Donegal,  1747 

James  Crawley  or  Crowley,  1747 

George  Croghan,  1744 

Barnaby  Curran,  Ohio  Company,  1749 

Timothy  Fitzpatrick,  Allegheny,  1734 

Timothy  Higgins,  Shamokin,  1728 

Barnabas  Hughes,  Donegal,  1753 

John  Kelly,  Donegal,  Allegheny,  1732-34 

John  Kennedy,  a  Lowry  Trader,  1754 

Edward  Kenny,  Allegheny,  1734 

Ralph  Kilgore,  Pickawillany,  1750 

[66] 


THE  IRISH  IN  PENNSYLVANIA 

Alexander  McGinty,  1733,  furnished  information  for  Evans'  Map, 

1755 

John  McGuire,  one  of  Washington's  guides  in  1753 
James  McLaughlin,  1752 
Neal  McLaughlin,  Chester  Co.,  1749 
Charles  McMichael,  Chester  Co.,  1742 
Samuel  Mealy,  Chester  Co.,  1750 
Thomas  Moran,  Allegheny,  1734 
Owen  Nicholson,  1752 
Terence  O'Neal,  Chester  Co.,  1730 
Garret  Prendergrass,  1735 
John  Quinn,  Allegheny,  1748 
Timothy  Reardon,  Venango,  1752 
Dennis  Sullivan,  Donegal,  1747 
Michael  Taafe,  Logstown,  1753 
Patrick  Whinney,  Chester  Co.,  1749 


In  addition  to  the  above  list,  the  following  names  appear 
on  the  list  of  Traders,  but  were  not  included  because  the 
names  might  be  claimed  to  be  of  other  than  Irish  origin, 
yet  are  just  as  prevalent  in  Ireland  as  in  Scotland  or  else- 
where : 

James  Butler,  1747 

Thomas  Butler,  1747 

John  Carson,  Allegheny,  1753 

Philip  Coleman,  1745-47 

Cornelius  Comegys,  Trader  among  the  Susquehannocks,  1695 

John  Dougell,  1748 

James  Dunning,  Allegheny,  1734  to  54 

Robert  Dunning,  Donegal,  1730 

John  Finley,  1744 

Edward  Hart,  Shamokin,  1729 

James  McAllister,  1743 

Andrew  McBryer,  Lowrey's  Trader,  1752 

John  McClure,  Chester  Co.,  1743 

Archibald  McGee,  Chester  Co.,  1730 

John  Mcllvaine,  1743 

Thomas  McKee,  1744,  Capt.  in  French  and  Indian  War 

James  McKnight,  1743 

James  McMordie,  Chester  Co.,  1751 

John  Martin,  Ohio  Trader,  1750 

Thomas  Meener,  1747 

Peter  Moyer,  1748 

[67] 


IRISH  CONTRIBUTION  TO  AMERICA'S  INDEPENDENCE 

Peter,  Robert,  Thomas  and  William  Wilkins,  Donegal,  1718-46. 
Samuel  Smith,  of  Donegal,  a  prominent  trader,  was  born  in  the 

North  of  Ireland. 
Lasarus  Lowrey,  Lancaster  Co.,  one  of  the  largest  traders  in  the 

State,  whose  five  sons,  were  also  traders,  came  from  the  North  of 

Ireland. 


The  Butlers,  Finley,  Dunnings,  McClure,  McKnight, 
Martin,  McGee,  etc.,  are  known  to  have  come  from  Ireland. 
George  Croghan,  in  the  first  list,  came  from  Dublin  in 
1741,  and  was  probably  the  best  known  trader  in  the 
country;  "A  complete  history  of  his  life  and  activities 
would  be  a  history  of  the  Indians  and  Indian  trade  of 
Pennsylvania,  Ohio,  Kentucky  and  Indiana  from  1746  to 
1776."* 

On  March  29  and  May  25,  1748,  commissions  were 
issued  by  the  Governor  of  Pennsylvania  to  the  following 
officers  chosen  for  that  part  of  Lancaster  County  lying 
between  the  River  Susquehanna  and  the  lines  of  the  prov- 
ince: 

Colonel,  Benjamin  Chambers 
Lt.  Colonel,  Robert  Dunning 
Major  William  Maxwell 
Captains,  Richard  O'Cain 

James  Carnaghan 

James  McTeer 

James  Galbreath 

Adam  Reed 

John  McKown 

John  Galbreath 

David  McClure 

Thomas  McKee 
Lieuts.  Andred  Findlay 
James  Dyssart 
John  McCormick 
Charles  McGill 

*  For  further  information  relating  to  Indian  Traders  see  "The 
Wilderness  Trail,"  by  Hanna. 

[68] 


THE  IRISH  IN  PENNSYLVANIA 

Ensigns  James  Finney 

John  Dougherty 
William  McMullan 
John  Lesan 
George  Brannan 

Of  the  above  twenty-one  names,  10  are  distinctively 
Irish,  while  of  the  remaining  number,  William  Maxwell, 
Andrew  Findlay,  Charles  McGill,  James  and  John  Gal- 
breath,  David  McClure,  and  Thomas  McKee  came  from 
the  North  of  Ireland. 

The  predominance  of  Irish  names  in  the  lists  of  colonial 
taxpayers,  traders,  soldiers,  officers,  etc.,  as  illustrated  by 
the  foregoing,  is  sufficient  evidence  of  two  facts,  namely: 
that  the  Irish  were  numerous  in  Pennsylvania  before  the 
Revolution,  and  they  were  not  altogether  the  so-called 
"Scotch-Irish,"  as  they  bore  real  Irish  names.  As  it  was  a 
common  practice  among  Irish  families  to  change  or  modify 
their  names  to  a  Scotch  or  English  form,  many  men  of 
Irish  origin  were  necessarily  omitted  from  the  lists. 


THE  IRISH  IN  OTHER  PROVINCES 

WE  have  devoted  considerable  space  to  the  Irish  in 
New  England  and  Pennsylvania  because  of  the 
theory  that  New  England  contained  no  real  Irish 
population,  and  because,  while  it  is  conceded  by  most 
writers  that  the  Irish  came  to  Pennsylvania  in  large 
numbers,  they  have  been  called  "Scotch-Irish"  from 
Ulster,  who  had  no  "Celtic  blood  in  their  veins" — a  theory 
which  is  destroyed  by  the  names  of  these  early  Irish  set- 
tlers and  the  facts  already  presented.  But  what  is  true 
of  the  Irish  in  New  England  and  Pennsylvania  is  true  of 
all  the  other  colonies.  The  Irish  in  early  New  York  was 
the  subject  of  an  address  by  Michael  J.  O'Brien,  Esq.,  de- 
livered before  the  N.  Y.  State  Historical  Society  at  Lake 
George,  August  22,  1906,  from  which  we  take  the  following 
facts  to  indicate  the  extent  of  the  Irish  population  of  the 
province : 

In  the  census  of  the  city  of  New  York  for  1703  occur  a 
large  number  of  distinctively  Irish  names,  as  Mooney, 
Dooley,  Walsh,  Carroll,  Dauly,  Corbett,  Kenny,  Gillen, 
Morrayn,  and  in  1733,  McLennon,  Lynch,  Rafty,  Hanlon, 
Darcy,  Dwire,  etc. 

The  tax  rate  lists  of  Long  Island  for  1675  contain  the 
following  distinctively  Irish  names:  Kelly,  Dalton, 
Whelan,  Condon,  Barry,  Byrne,  Goulden,  Quinn,  Cayne, 
Kane,  Bradley,  Griffin,  Terrell,  Brien,  Clery,  Patrick, 

[71] 


IRISH  CONTRIBUTION  TO  AMERICA'S  INDEPENDENCE 

Holdren,  Sweeney,  Murphy,  McCorkel,  Kennedy,  Mc- 
Cown,  etc. 

In  the  lists  of  marriage  licenses  issued  by  the  secretary 
of  the  province  previous  to  1784,  which  has  been  printed 
in  small  type  in  double  column,  there  are  eleven  pages  of 
names  beginning  with  "Me,"  three  pages  of  names  begin- 
ning with  the  capital  O',  and  hundreds  of  other  distinct- 
ively Irish  names,  as  McDonnell,  24;  Walsh,  22;  Murphy, 
21;  Kelly,  16;  Ryan,  17;  Kennedy,  15;  Sullivan,  11; 
Collin,  24;  and  Moore,  84  times. 

Sir  William  Johnson,  Colonial  Governor  of  New  York, 
had  as  his  lawyer  a  man  named  Kelly,  his  physician  was 
named  Daly,  his  secretary  Lafferty,  his  superintendent  of 
properties  Flood,  and  among  other  employes  were  Byrne, 
McCarthy,  Colter,  Doran,  McDonald,  and  Connor. 

In  a  petition  to  the  Governor  of  New  York  dated 
January,  1695,  occur  the  following  Irish  names:  Connor, 
Kilmore,  McLean,  McDermott,  Whalen,  Dennis,  Mc- 
Arthur,  Cannay,  Murphy,  Mclntyre. 

But  perhaps  the  most  interesting  records  are  those  of 
the  marriages  performed  in  the  Dutch  Reformed  Church 
of  New  York  between  1639  and  1801,  between  persons  of 
Irish  birth.  These  records  contain  numerous  entries  like 
the  following: 

George  Walker,  from  Ireland,  to  Miss  VanHeck,  September 

23,  1692. 
William  Doulen,  from  Ireland,  to  Catharine  Strides,  April  18, 

1701. 
Denys  Costula,  B.  in  Ireland,  m.  Elizabeth  Rendel,  widow  of 

Barney  Hamilton,  born  in  Ireland. 
John  O'Bryan  to  Margary  Flingh,  both  born  in  Ireland,  June 

7,  1761. 

Martin  Coin  and  Hannah  Boyl,  January  6,  1757. 
[72] 


THE  IRISH  IN  OTHER  PROVINCES 

Hannah  Ryn  to  Wm.  Hayes,  both  born  in  Ireland,  January  3, 

1772. 
Magrite  Dally,  from  Ireland,  to  Patrick  Dallon,  December  22, 

1774. 


The  records  are  full  of  such  names  as  Boil,  Coil,  Rein, 
Rian,  Ryen,  Ryn,  Ryne  (for  Ryan),  McManus,  Mc- 
Manness,  McMoness,  McMulland,  Macknult,  Megee,  etc., 
and  it  is  easy  to  trace  the  transition  of  Irish  names  like 
Ryan  to  the  Dutch  Ryn  or  Van  Ryn,  and  McManus  to 
McMoness  and  Moness,  etc. 

A  large  number  of  Irish  Quakers  settled  in  New  Jersey, 
but  a  still  larger  number  of  Irish  of  other  denominations 
came  to  that  colony  just  before  the  Revolution,  and  the 
lists  of  New  Jersey  officers  and  soldiers  of  the  Revo- 
lutionary War  contain  an  abundance  of  Irish  names. 
By  reason  of  the  fact  that  Catholic  Churches  were  scarce 
and  practice  of  the  Catholic  religion  prohibited,  many 
Irish  Catholics  or  their  children  drifted  away  from  the 
Church.  The  following  excerpts  from  the  biography  of 
Richard  Collins,  printed  in  Heston's  "Annals  of  Eyren 
Haven  and  Atlantic  City,"  illustrate  a  typical  case: 

"In  1765,  one  year  before  the  organization  of  the  State 
Medical  Society,  Richard  Collins,  a  native  of  Ireland, 
settled  in  that  part  of  old  Gloucester  which  afterwards 
became  Atlantic  County.  Dr.  Collins  was  the  first 
physician  resident  in  the  county.  .  .  He  was  a  Roman 
Catholic,  but  settling  among  Quakers,  he  eventually 
adopted  their  mode  of  speech  and  dress.  .  .  Speaking 
of  his  three  sons  by  his  second  marriage,  he  once  said: 
'  I  have  raised  one  Methodist,  one  Quaker,  and  one  Uni- 
versalist.'  He  died  a  Methodist  in  1808." 

[73] 


IRISH  CONTRIBUTION  TO  AMERICA'S  INDEPENDENCE 

It  is  commonly  known  that  Maryland  had  a  large  Irish 
Catholic  population  early  in  its  history,  and  it  was  the 
only  one  of  the  colonies  that  sent  a  Catholic  to  the  Conti- 
nental Congress — Charles  Carroll,  the  signer,  grandson  of 
an  Irish  colonist.  The  shipment  of  Irish  political  prisoners 
and  persons  kidnapped  in  Ireland  to  Virginia  and  other 
Southern  colonies  was  carried  on  extensively  during  the 
latter  part  of  the  seventeenth  and  early  in  the  eighteenth 
century.  Campbell's  News  Letter,  Boston,  April  27,  1703, 
contains  the  following  significant  item:  "Philadelphia, 
April  13th,  they  writt  that  on  Saturday  last  arrived  a 
Gentleman  from  Maryland  brings  the  following  news, 
That  40  Sayle  of  West  Countrey  Men  were  arrived  in 
Maryland  and  Virginia  about  7  weeks  passage.  .  .  . 
two  men  of  warr  Conveyed  them  from  Corke  in  Ireland." 

About  1683  a  large  number  of  immigrants  from  Ireland, 
influenced  by  Sir  Richard  Kyrle  (Governor  in  1684)  who 
was  himself  a  Dublin  Irishman,  settled  in  South  Carolina. 
In  1700,  James  Moore,  descendant  of  Roger  O'More,  who 
had  emigrated  from  Ireland  in  1665,  was  governor  of  the 
colony,  and  Patrick  Calhoun,  born  in  Donegal,  father  of 
Vice-President  J.  E.  Calhoun,  settled  there  in  1735.  In 
fact,  the  history  of  the  entire  South  is  largely  the  story  of 
the  Irish  immigrants  and  their  descendants.  In  Virginia 
the  Colemans,  Ryans,  Dohertys,  McLoughlins,  McDowell, 
Shays,  Joyces,  Con  ways,  and  Dalys  were  colonial  settlers; 
in  Carolina  were  the  Burkes,  Rutledges,  Moores,  Lynches, 
Calhouns,  Caldwells,  and  Jacksons  (ancestors  of  President 
Andrew  Jackson) ;  in  Georgia  were  Knoxes,  Dooleys,  Mc- 
Callas,  Clarkes,  Butlers,  and  Pollocks  (ancestors  of  Gover- 
nor Polk),  who  came  from  Ireland. 

That  these  early  settlers  were  not  altogether  the  so- 

[74] 


THE  IRISH  IN  OTHER  PROVINCES 

called  "Scotch-Irish"  is  clearly  evident  from  the  following 
distinctively  Irish  names  which  appear  in  the  lists  of 
soldiers  of  Colonel  George  Washington's  Regiment  of 
Virginia  Militia,  appearing  in  a  report  made  July  9,  1754, 
just  after  the  battle  of  Great  Meadows: 


David  Welsh 

John  Carroll 

Robert  McKoy 

Anthony  Kennedy 

William  Deveny 

James  Welch 

Joseph  Costerton 

Henry  Neill 

John  Bryan 

Michael  McGrath,  wounded 

Michael  Reily,  wounded 

Patrick  Durphy,  wounded 

Robert  McCulroy,  wounded 

Daniel  McClaran,  killed 

Thomas  Langdon,  Sergeant 

Dennis  Kenton 

Michael  Scully 

David  Gorman 

Dominick  Moran 

Michael  McGannon 

Patrick  Coyle 

John  Burk 

Cornelius  Henley 

William  Carnes 

Terrence  Swinney 

Lieutenant  Savage 

John  McCulley 


John  Rodgere 
Edward  Cahill 
Philip  Comerley 
George  McSwine 
Robert  Murphy 
John  Mclntyre 
Patrick  McPick 
Daniel  Malatte 
James  McCormick 
Thomas  Dunahough 
John  McGuire 
John  Coin 
Charles  Dunn 
Patrick  Galloway 
Thomas  Hennessy 
Angus  McDonald 
James  Tyrrel 
John  Given 
Nathaniel  Barret 
Thomas  Burk 
Timothy  Conway 
Barnaby  McKan 
John  Gallahour 
William  Mclntyre 
Hugh  McKay 
James  Dailey 
John  McQuire 


How  many  of  the  soldiers  bearing  other  than  Irish 
names  were  of  Irish  birth  or  extraction  it  would  be  im- 
possible to  guess,  but  Andrew  Lewis,  a  captain  in  one  of 
the  companies  (a  general  in  the  Revolution),  was  born  in 
Donegal. 


75 


THE  IRISH  CONTRIBUTION  TO  AMER- 
ICA'S MATERIAL  PROGRESS 

THERE  can  be  no  doubt  that  the  colonial  immigration 
from  Ireland  was  large.  Several  volumes  of  stories 
of  a  most  romantic  character  might  be  written  to 
portray  the  rise  of  these  Irish  immigrants,  exiles  from  the 
country  of  their  birth  because  of  intolerable  conditions, 
banished  because  of  their  devotion  to  principle,  kidnapped 
and  sold  into  slavery  because  of  their  helplessness,  and 
starving  because  they  were  robbed  of  their  sustenance, 
finding  their  opportunity  in  another  world,  an  unde- 
veloped wilderness  where  the  very  air  and  vastness  of  the 
country  instilled  in  their  hearts  the  feeling  that  here  at 
last  was  liberty.  As  former  President  Roosevelt  has  said : 
"The  Irish  people  have  proved  themselves  a  masterful 
race  of  rugged  character — a  race  the  qualities  of  whose 
womanhood  have  become  proverbial,  while  its  men  have 
the  elemental,  the  indispensable  virtues  of  working  hard 
in  times  of  peace  and  fighting  hard  in  time  of  war."  What 
a  sad  commentary  on  British  rule  in  Ireland  that  Irishmen 
need  only  leave  their  own  land  to  become  leaders  in  every 
occupation,  or  at  least  to  develop  habits  of  industry  and 
self-reliance.  In  his  "Annals  of  Philadelphia,"  in  comment- 
ing on  the  Irish  immigration,  Watson  says:  "In  some  cases 
the  severity  of  the  British  laws  pushed  off  young  men  of 

[77] 


IRISH  CONTRIBUTION  TO  AMERICA'S  INDEPENDENCE 

good  abilities  for  very  small  offences,  who  made  very  capa- 
ble clerks,  storekeepers,  etc.,  among  us.  I  have  knowl- 
edge of  two  or  three  among  us,  even  within  my  memory, 
who  rose  to  riches  and  credit  here  and  have  left  fine 
families.  One  great  man  before  my  time  had  been  sold  in 
Maryland  as  an  offender  in  Ireland.  While  serving  his 
master  as  a  common  servant,  he  showed  much  ability, 
unexpectedly,  in  managing  for  him  an  important  lawsuit, 
for  which  he  instantly  gave  him  free.  He  then  came  to 
Philadelphia  and  amassed  a  great  fortune  in  landed  estate, 
now  of  great  value  among  his  heirs."  The  same  author 
says  that  Lord  Altham  came  to  Philadelphia  from  Ireland 
in  1728  and  served  out  his  indenture  as  James  Annesley, 
with  a  farmer. 

The  type  of  men  that  Ireland  lost  and  America  gained 
through  the  severity  of  British  laws  referred  to  by  Watson, 
is  illustrated  by  the  following  brief  biographies  of  "Irish 
rebels"  who  came  to  America  early  in  her  history: 

Robert  Adrian,  born  in  Carrickfergus,  Ireland,  took  part 
in  the  Irish  revolution  of  1798,  was  wounded  in  an  engage- 
ment and  later  escaped  to  America,  where  he  became  one 
of  the  foremost  mathematicians  of  the  early  part  of  the 
nineteenth  century.  He  was  Professor  of  Mathematics 
at  Rutgers  College,  at  Columbia  College,  and  the  Uni- 
versity of  Pennsylvania. 

Matthew  Carey  had  to  flee  from  Ireland  because  of 
inflammatory  articles  against  the  government.  While  in 
Paris  he  met  Franklin,  who  employed  him  to  write  for  the 
patriotic  cause  in  America.  Later  he  returned  to  Ireland 
and  became  a  power  in  politics,  was  arrested  for  libel, 
imprisoned,  and  on  his  release  came  to  America.  In  1784 
he  began  the  Pennsylvania  Herald,  the  first  newspaper 

[78] 


THE  IRISH  IN  OTHER  PROVINCES 

in  the  United  States  that  furnished  accurate  reports  of 
legislative  debates,  and  "he  interested  himself  in  forward- 
ing education  and  in  establishing  the  charitable  institutions 
for  which  Philadelphia  is  famous." 

John  Lewis,  of  County  Donegal,  killed  his  landlord  in 
resisting  an  illegal  attempt  to  eject  him  from  his  home, 
and  with  three  sons  he  came  to  Virginia  in  1732,  being  the 
first  white  settler  in  Bellefont,  Va.  His  oldest  son  Andrew 
became  brigadier  general  in  the  Continental  Army;  his 
son  Thomas  was  a  member  of  the  Virginia  legislature ;  and 
his  sons  William  and  Charles  were  colonels  in  the  Revo- 
lution. 

Dr.  William  James  MacNevin,  born  in  Ballynhowne, 
County  Galway,  at  twelve  years  of  age  went  to  Austria, 
where  his  uncle,  Baron  O' Kelly  MacNevin  (also  an  exile), 
was  physician  to  the  Empress  Maria  Theresa.  Returned 
to  Ireland  and  became  a  leader  in  the  rebellion  of  1798, 
was  imprisoned  four  years,  came  to  America,  and  estab- 
lished the  first  chemical  laboratory  in  New  York.  Was 
Professor  of  Obstetrics  and  Chemistry  College  of  Phy- 
sicians and  Surgeons,  and  with  others  founded  a  medical 
school  in  New  York  City. 

George  McCook,  who  was  concerned  in  the  United 
Irishmen,  fled  from  Ireland  about  1780,  and  came  to 
America.  He  was  the  ancestor  of  the  "Fighting  McCooks," 
a  family  well  known  in  American  history.  His  two  sons 
and  eight  grandsons  were  officers  in  the  army  and  one 
grandson  a  naval  officer  during  the  Civil  War. 

The  Irish  contribution  to  the  material  development  of 
America  is  best  illustrated  in  a  practical  way  by  the 
following  facts: 

e  [791 


IRISH  CONTRIBUTION  TO  AMERICA'S  INDEPENDENCE 

The  first  daily  newspaper  in  America,  1784,  the  "Pennsyl- 
vania Packet"  (predecessor  of  the  North  American), 
was  edited  and  printed  by  John  Dunlap,  of  Philadel- 
phia, born  in  Strabane,  County  Tyrone,  1747,  came 
to  America  in  early  youth. 

First  American  writer  on  Political  Economy,  Matthew 
Carey,  was  born  in  Armagh,  Ireland,  1761. 

First  steam  engine  built  in  United  States  by  Christopher 
Colles,  born  in  Ireland,  1738,  came  to  America,  1765. 
Was  also  the  first  to  suggest  canals  and  improve- 
ments to  connect  Lake  Ontario  with  the  Hudson,  and 
a  system  of  pipes  to  supply  New  York  city  with  water 
from  outside. 

First  steamboat  built  and  operated  by  Robert  Fulton, 
whose  father  came  from  Kilkenny,  Ireland. 

First  grain-cutter  manufactured  and  invented  by  Robert 
McCormick,  son  of  Robert  McCormick  and  Mary 
McChesney  Hall,  daughter  of  Patrick  Hall,  both  of 
Irish  descent. 

First  practical  reaping  machine  manufactured  by  Cyrus 
Hall  McCormick,  son  of  Robert  McCormick.  In 
1859  Beverly  Johnson  said:  "The  McCormick  reaper 
has  already  contributed  an  annual  income  to  the 
whole  country  of  $55,000,000  at  least. 

First  cut  nails  invented  and  made  by  James  Cochran, 
whose  father  came  from  Coleraine,  Ireland. 

First  to  introduce  cotton  manufacture,  Patrick  Tracey 
Jackson,  in  partnership  with  Francis  C.  Lowell. 

First  to  introduce  linen  manufacture  into  New  England, 
the  Irish  colonists  of  1718. 

First  piano  manufactured  in  the  United  States  by  Thomas 
Crehore,  descendant  of  Teague  Crehore,  who  was 
said  to  have  been  kidnapped  in  Ireland  and  brought 
to  Massachusetts,  between  1640  and  1650  (Cullen's 
"Irish  in  Boston"). 

First  chocolate  in  America  manufactured  by  John  Hannan, 
who  came  to  Boston  from  Ireland  in  1764  (Haltigan). 

[80] 


THE  IRISH  IN  OTHER  PROVINCES 

First  college  in  the  world  to  admit  women  on  equal  terms 
with  men,  and  which  received  colored  students 
twenty-eight  years  before  emancipation,  was  Oberlin 
College.  First  president  of  this  college,  Asa  Mahon, 
whose  ancestor  came  to  New  England  from  Ireland 
("National  Cyclop.  American  Biography,"  vol.  ii, 
p.  461). 

First  literary  institution  higher  than  a  common  school 
within  the  bounds  of  the  Presbyterian  Church,  which 
is  regarded  as  the  germ  from  which  sprang  Princeton 
College  and  several  lesser  institutions  of  learning, 
was  the  "Log  College,"  founded  at  Neshaminy,  Pa., 
in  1728,  by  Gilbert  Tennant,  who  was  born  in  Ireland 
in  1673,  educated  at  Trinity  College,  and  settled  at 
Neshaminy  in  1726  (Appleton's  "Biographies"). 

First  Presbyterian  Church  in  New  England  founded  at 
Londonderry,  N.  H.,  by  James  MacGreggor,  who 
was  born  in  Ireland,  1677. 

First  Presbyterian  Church  in  Baltimore,  Md.,  established 
by  Patrick  Allison,  a  native  of  Ireland. 

First  Republican  Methodist  Church,  afterwards  the 
Christian  Church,  in  North  Carolina  and  Virginia, 
founded  by  James  O'Kelly,  who  was  born  in  1735. 

First  Roman  Catholic  Bishop  of  America,  John  Carroll, 
grandson  of  an  Irishman. 

First  Methodist  Episcopal  Bishop  in  America,  William 
McKendree,  born  in  Virginia,  1757. 

It  was  not  alone  in  the  settled  portions  of  the  Atlantic 
colonies  that  the  Irish  became  leaders  in  public  enter- 
prise. The  immigrants  from  Ireland  were  the  advance 
guard  of  civilization  in  the  vast  wilderness  of  the  West. 
Alexander  Macomb,  who  came  from  Belfast  in  youth, 
became  one  of  the  largest  fur  merchants  in  the  west,  with 
headquarters  in  Detroit,  and  was  associated  with  John 
Jacob  Astor  and  Elias  Kane.  His  fortune  was  such  that 

181] 


IRISH  CONTRIBUTION  TO  AMERICA'S  INDEPENDENCE 

in  1791  he  bought  of  the  State  of  New  York  3,670,715 
acres  of  land  on  the  St.  Lawrence  River,  including  all 
of  the  Thousand  Islands  that  belonged  to  New  York. 
The  first  white  child  born  in  the  Western  Reserve  was 
the  grandson  of  a  Dublin  woman,*  and  the  history  of 
Ohio,  Kentucky,  and  Indiana  is  closely  interwoven  with 
the  activities  of  George  Croghan  from  Dublin,  the  Mc- 
Gradys,  from  County  Mayo,  the  Robinsons  and  Robert- 
sons, from  the  North  of  Ireland,  the  O'Haras,  the  O'Fal- 
lons,  and  many  others  of  Irish  name.  John  McDonough, 
who  at  his  death  in  1850  left  the  bulk  of  his  fortune  of 
nearly  $2,000,000  to  the  cities  of  New  Orleans  and  Balti- 
more to  found  free  schools,  who  liberated  all  his  slaves 
and  shipped  many  to  Africa,  was  the  son  of  an  Irish  immi- 
grant who  served  in  the  Colonial  Wars  and  the  Revolu- 
tion. John  O'Fallon,  who  established  the  O'Fallon 
Polytechnic  Institute  (now  the  scientific  department  of 
St.  Louis  University),  gave  liberally  to  Washington 
University,  built  a  dispensary  and  medical  college,  and 
altogether  spent  over  $1,000,000  for  benevolent  purposes 
in  St.  Louis,  was  the  son  of  Dr.  James  O'Fallon,  who 
immigrated  to  North  Carolina  in  1774  and  served  in  the 
Revolution.  The  man  who  wrote  the  poem,  "  The 
Bivouac  of  the  Dead, "  verses  of  which  are  carved  over 
the  entrances  to  all  national  cemeteries,  Theodore  O'Hara, 
was  the  son  of  Kane  O'Hara,  an  Irish  political  exile  who 
settled  in  Kentucky. 

*  The  son  of  William  Tappan  Thompson,  whose  father  was  of 
Irish  descent  and  mother  a  native  of  Dublin  (Appleton's  "American 
Biographies"). 


82 


THE   GROWTH   OF   RELIGIOUS 
FREEDOM  IN  AMERICA 

THE  "Charter  of  Liberties  and  Privileges"  granted 
to  the  province  of  New  York  in  the  year  1683, 
nearly  a  century  before  the  adoption  of  the  Decla- 
ration of  Independence,  is  a  landmark  in  the  history  of 
popular  government  in  America.     It  provided  that: 

"Every  freeholder  within  this  province  and  freeman 
in  any  corporation  shall  have  his  free  choice  and  vote  in 
the  election  of  the  representatives,  without  any  manner 
of  constraint  or  imposition,  and  in  all  elections  the  ma- 
jority of  voices  shall  carry  it. 

"No  aid,  tax,  tollage,  assessment,  custom,  loan,  benevo- 
lence, or  imposition  whatsoever  shall  be  laid,  assessed, 
imposed  or  levied  on  any  of  his  Majesty's  subjects  within 
this  province,  or  their  estates,  upon  any  manner  of  color 
or  pretense  but  by  the  act  and  consent  of  the  Governor, 
Council,  and  representatives  of  the  people  in  General 
Assembly  met  and  assembled." 

The  man  who  granted  this  charter  was  not  an  "Anglo- 
Saxon,"  but  a  Roman  Catholic  Irishman  named  Thomas 
Dongan,  born  in  Castletown,  County  Kildare,  who  was 
Governor  of  New  York  from  1682  to  1688.  Had  all  the 
English  Governors  in  all  the  provinces  of  America  been 
equally  liberal  in  their  government,  the  Revolution  would 
not  have  occurred. 

The  religious  freedom  which   Americans  now  enjoy, 

[831 


IRISH  CONTRIBUTION  TO  AMERICA'S  INDEPENDENCE 

and  which  began  with  the  close  of  the  Revolution,  presents 
a  strong  contrast  to  the  spirit  which  prevailed  in  Massa- 
chusetts under  Puritan  domination.  The  New  England 
Puritans,  who  supposedly  came  to  America  to  escape 
persecution,  were  themselves  bitterly  intolerant  toward 
all  other  sects.  Their  burning  of  heretics,  their  per- 
secution of  Quakers,  Baptists,  and  others  of  more  liberal 
views,  whom  they  drove  from  the  province,  are  matters 
with  which  students  of  history  are  well  acquainted.  The 
extent  to  which  their  narrowness  prevailed  is  perhaps 
best  illustrated  in  the  following  law,  promulgated  by  the 
Massachusetts  Puritans  in  1670: 

"For  preventing  disorders  arising  in  several  places 
within  this  jurisdiction  by  reason  of  some  still  observing 
such  festivals  as  were  superstitiously  kept  in  other  coun- 
tries, to  the  great  dishonour  of  God  and  offence  to  others : 
It  is  therefore  ordered  by  this  Court  and  the  authority 
thereof,  that  whosoever  shall  be  found  observing  any 
such  day  as  Christmas  or  the  like,  either  by  forbearing 
labor,  feasting,  or  any  other  way  upon  such  account  as 
aforesaid,  every  such  person  so  offending  shall  pay  for 
every  such  offence  five  shillings  as  a  fine  to  the  country." 

Americans  have  cause  to  be  thankful  that  Puritanism 
collapsed,  and  for  the  further  fact  that  the  politicians 
within  the  Anglican  Church,  who  used  the  Church  to 
further  their  own  interests,  did  not  secure  the  hold  on 
young  America  that  they  had  on  Ireland.  "It  is  inter- 
esting to  observe  that  the  Quakers  and  the  Catholics, 
men  standing  at  the  opposite  poles  of  theology,  set  the 
highest  examples  of  tolerance.  Quaker  Pennsylvania 
enforced  absolute  liberty  of  conscience,  and  Quakers  in 
all  the  provinces  worked  for  religious  harmony  and  free- 

[84] 


dom.  Catholic  Maryland,  as  long  as  its  government 
remained  in  Catholic  hands,  and  under  the  guidance  of 
the  wise  and  liberal  proprietary,  Lord  Baltimore,  pursued 
the  same  policy  and  attracted  members  of  sects  perse- 
cuted in  New  England."*  But  when  the  Puritans  gained 
control  of  the  Assembly  in  Maryland  in  1654  they  im- 
mediately passed  an  act  against  popery,  while  in  1689, 
the  Church  of  England  was  established  by  law  and  the 
Penal  Laws  were  applied  to  the  Catholics  of  Maryland. 
After  the  death  of  William  Penn,  with  the  rise  of  the 
Anglican  Church  party  in  Pennsylvania,  intolerance  im- 
mediately became  the  order. 

It  is  clear  that  war  on  popery  was  the  ruling  passion  of 
the  Puritans  and  a  certain  element  in  the  Established 
Church.  In  the  former  this  was  due  to  a  narrow  spirit, 
which  was  "dull,  unamiable,  and  unintelligent."  In  the 
latter  it  was  fostered  by  pure  selfishness  and  that  greed 
of  spiritual  and  worldly  power  which  has  always  been 
the  ruling  element  in  British  character.  The  chief  com- 
plaint against  the  Church  of  Rome  was  its  activity  in 
secular  affairs,  yet  the  Church  of  England  carried  this 
very  principle  to  an  excess  in  Ireland  which  no  other 
church  has  tried  to  equal,  and  this  at  a  time  when  the 
world  had  emerged  from  the  dark  ages  of  ignorance, 
superstition,  Knights  Templars,  and  Crusaders. 

At  the  period  when  the  Irish  began  coming  to  America 
in  large  numbers,  early  in  the  eighteenth  century,  they 
found  the  restrictions  against  Catholics  as  severe  as  in 
Ireland.  In  every  colony  except  Pennsylvania  (Mary- 
land being  then  subject  to  the  Church  of  England)  Roman 

*  Erskine  Childers,  "The  Framework  of  Home  Rule,"  London, 
1911. 

[85] 


IRISH  CONTRIBUTION  TO  AMERICA'S  INDEPENDENCE 

Catholics  were  debarred  from  civil  rights  or  were  sub- 
jected to  severe  penalties.*  This  accounts  in  large  measure 
for  the  fact  that  so  large  a  proportion  of  the  Irish  immi- 
grants, instead  of  founding  distinct  colonies  themselves 
on  the  Atlantic  seaboard,  scattered  through  all  the  prov- 
inces, settled  in  the  remote  parts  of  some  provinces,  or 
pushed  on  to  the  frontiers,  where  they  were  comparatively 
free  from  British  persecution.  Thus,  in  Maine,  a  re- 
mote district  of  the  Massachusetts  Bay  Colony,  numbers 
of  Irish  Catholics — Sullivans,  O'Briens,  Murphys,  Burkes, 
and  Ryans — settled,  while  thousands  found  refuge  in  the 
wildernesses  of  western  New  York,  Pennsylvania,  Virginia, 
and  the  Carolinas. 

Thousands  of  Catholic  Irish,  brought  to  the  Colonies 
in  youth,  were  reared  as  Protestants;  others,  finding  the 
struggle  against  persecution  too  hard,  became  Protestants 
for  the  sake  of  the  advantages  denied  to  Catholics;  while 
others  became  Protestants  through  intermarriage.  This 
is  clearly  illustrated  in  the  marriage  records  of  Protestant 
churches  in  Philadelphia,  previously  referred  to. 

What  proportion  of  the  Irish  population  of  the  colonies 
at  the  beginning  of  the  Revolution  was  Catholic  it  would 
be  impossible  for  any  one  to  say,  because  the  practice  of 
that  religion  openly  was  proscribed  and  churches  did  not 
legally  exist.  Even  in  Philadelphia,  where  hundreds  of 
men  of  some  prominence  were  members  of  the  Catholic 
faith,  the  Governor  of  the  Council,  Patrick  Gordon,  at  a 
meeting  held  July  25,  1734,  "informed  the  Board  that 
he  was  under  no  small  concern  to  hear  a  house  lately 
built  in  Walnut  Street  in  this  city  had  been  set  apart  for 
the  exercise  of  the  Roman  Catholic  religion,  and  is  com- 
*  Channing's  "History  of  the  United  States,"  p.  144. 
[86] 


GROWTH  OF  RELIGIOUS  FREEDOM  IN  AMERICA 

monly  called  a  Romish  Chapell,  where  several  Persons, 
he  understands,  resort  on  Sundays  to  hear  Mass  Openly 
celebrated  by  a  Popish  Priest;  that  he  conceives  the 
tolerating  the  Public  Exercise  of  that  Religion  to  be  con- 
trary to  the  Laws  of  England,  some  of  which,  particularly 
the  11  and  12  of  King  William  the  Third,  are  extended  to 
all  His  Majesty's  dominions;  but  those  of  that  Perswasion 
here  imagined  that  they  have  a  right  to  it,  from  some 
general  Expressions  in  the  Charter  of  Privileges  granted 
to  the  inhabitants  of  this  Government  by  our  late  Honour- 
able Proprietor,  he  was  desirous  to  know  the  sentiments 
of  this  Board  on  the  subject."* 

Evidently,  it  was  considered  inexpedient  to  interfere 
with  the  Church,  as  the  complaint  seems  to  have  been 
tabled  and  no  further  action  was  taken  on  the  subject. 
It  is  strange  that  the  complaint  should  have  come  from 
a  man  with  such  a  name  as  that  of  Patrick  Gordon,  but 
it  always  happens  that  the  man  loudest  in  his  denuncia- 
tion of  any  religion  is  one  who  has  abjured  that  religion 
for  the  sake  of  his  own  worldly  advancement  or  some 
equally  base  motive.  As  a  general  rule,  the  bigot  lacks 
an  appreciation  of  the  fundamental  principles  of  Chris- 
tianity— charity  and  sympathy. 

On  November  5,  1775,  while  camped  before  Boston, 

General  Washington  found  it  necessary  to  publish  an 

order  against  the  celebration  of  "Pope's  Night"  by  the 

New  England  troops.     The  celebration,  a  childish  practice, 

was  aimed  at  the  Catholic  people,  and  while  Puritanism 

would  not  tolerate  the  celebration  of  the  birthday  of 

Christ  by  any  other  form  than  fasting  and  prayer,  it  set 

apart  a  day  to  give  vent  to  its  hatred  of  the  head  and 

*  "Colonial  Records,"  vol.  ii,  p.  589. 

[871 


IRISH  CONTRIBUTION  TO  AMERICA'S  INDEPENDENCE 

followers  of  a  Christian  church.  Before  the  Revolution 
had  ended  Catholics  were  not  only  tolerated,  but  eight 
of  the  colonies  which  formed  the  United  States  incorpor- 
ated in  their  constitutions  the  great  principle  of  religious 
equality.  The  emancipation  of  the  Catholics  in  America 
began  as  early  as  1774,  when  England,  in  order  to 
strengthen  her  own  hands  against  the  Colonies  by  secur- 
ing the  loyalty  of  the  people  of  Canada  and  the  Catholics 
of  England,  relieved  them  of  the  pressure  of  the  Penal 
Laws.  The  Continental  Congress,  having  in  its  army  a 
large  number  of  Catholics,  and  at  the  same  time  seeking 
the  aid  of  a  Catholic  nation,  France,  was  forced  to  a  similar 
policy,  and  Catholics  were  thereafter  cultivated  by  both 
sides  to  the  struggle. 

To  such  an  extent  had  official  and  public  sentiment 
regarding  Catholics  changed  with  the  breaking  of  the 
ties  that  bound  the  Colonies  to  England  that  in  1791,  on 
the  visit  of  the  Roman  Catholic  Bishop  Carroll  to  Boston, 
he  was  invited  to  the  annual  dinner  of  the  Ancient  and 
Honorable  Artillery  Company;  about  the  same  time, 
President  Washington  made  a  contribution  to  the  build- 
ing fund  of  the  Church  of  St.  Augustine,  Philadelphia;  in 
1799,  President  John  Adams  headed  the  list  of  contrib- 
utors to  the  building  fund  of  a  Catholic  Church  for  the 
city  of  Boston;  while  Bishop  Carroll  was  unanimously 
selected  by  Congress  to  deliver  a  panegyric  on  Washington, 
22  February,  1800. 

Thus  the  soldiers  of  the  Revolution  secured  for  America 
not  only  political  freedom,  but  religious  tolerance  and 
equality,  and  the  universal  equality  and  liberty  extended 
to  Catholics  were,  without  doubt,  due  to  the  part  played 
by  Irish  Catholics  in  the  Revolution. 

[881 


THE  IRISH  AND  THE  WAR  FOR 
INDEPENDENCE 

IN  her  effort  to  subdue  the  American  colonists,  England 
spent  £100,000,000  sterling  and  some  50,000  lives. 
Had  she  been  successful,  the  history  of  Ireland  would 
have  been  repeated  in  America.  Washington,  Hancock, 
Adams,  Franklin,  and  other  leaders  would  have  been 
hanged  as  "rebels,"  and  "America  would  have  become  a 
great  boiling  volcano,  a  political  hell  of  rebellion,  revolu- 
tions, vengeance,  assassinations,  and  wholesale  executions, 
with  here  and  there  a  province  or  a  section  winning  its 
independence  for  a  time  to  go  under  at  the  next  turn  in 
the  political  game.  The  British  Parliament  meantime 
would  be  kept  busy  through  the  centuries  passing  those 
land  acts,  reform  acts,  and  crimes  acts  which,  in  the  case 
of  Ireland,  have  been  steadily  turned  out  for  nearly  seven 
hundred  years.  In  a  word,  it  is  extremely  doubtful  whether 
England  could  have  controlled  America  any  more  profit- 
ably than  she  has  controlled  Ireland."* 

While  the  Irish  were  unable  to  throw  off  the  British 

yoke  in  Ireland,  they  contributed  their  strength  to  the 

cause  of  the  colonists,  and,  being  the  best  fighting  men 

in  the  world  and  the  most  eloquent  orators  in  the  cause  of 

liberty,  those  of  them  who  bore  arms  in  the  patriot  army 

were  a  match  for  the  British  soldiers  sent  to  suppress  the 

*  "The  Struggle  for  American  Independence,"  vol.  ii,  p.  553. 

[89] 


IRISH  CONTRIBUTION  TO  AMERICA'S  INDEPENDENCE 

"rebels,"  while  the  Irish  orators  aroused  the  temporizers 
among  the  colonists,  and  by  their  eloquence  kept  alive 
the  spirit  of  patriotism  which  finally  led  to  success.  Their 
experience  with  the  broken  promises  of  the  British  govern- 
ment, their  intimate  knowledge  of  the  methods  employed 
by  that  government  to  serve  her  purpose  in  Ireland — this 
knowledge,  combined  with  a  brief  respite  from  the  depri- 
vations and  misery  they  suffered  in  Ireland,  gave  added 
strength  to  their  determination  to  destroy  every  vestige 
of  English  tyranny  in  the  new  world  to  which  they  had 
come  to  escape  that  tyranny. 

The  leaders  of  the  patriot  party  in  the  Colonies  early 
realized  the  importance  of  securing  the  moral  and 
practical  support  of  the  Irish  people  for  their  cause. 
The  Irish  had  for  centuries  been  fighting  England's  bat- 
tles, as  there  was  no  other  occupation  open  to  them,  and 
many  were  compelled  to  serve  in  the  army  to  keep  from 
starving.  Their  reputation  as  excellent  soldiers  was  known 
throughout  the  world.  Hundreds  of  thousands  of  exiles 
had  gone  into  the  service  of  France,  Spain,  Austria,  Ger- 
many, and  even  Russia.  The  Irish  Brigade  in  the  service 
of  France  preserved  its  Irish  identity  and  carried  the  flag 
of  Ireland  into  every  battle  in  which  it  participated  from 
1691  to  1794,  and  every  year  thousands  of  young  men 
were  recruited  in  Ireland  for  the  Brigade.  Spain  main- 
tained four  distinctively  Irish  regiments  for  many  years. 
Two  Irishmen  had  become  field-marshals  in  Russia,  an 
Irish  lord  and  an  Irish  soldier  had  become  marshals  of 
France,  while  Maguires,  Lacys,  O'Donnells,  Taafes,  and 
Nugents  were  Austrian  generals;  and  O'Donnell,  O'Reilly, 
O'Neill,  O'Hara,  and  O'Mahony  were  famous  Spanish 
generals. 

[90] 


IRISH  AND  THE  WAR  FOR  INDEPENDENCE 

With  a  view  to  securing  some  of  this  talent  in  the  cause 
of  the  Colonies,  Franklin  visited  Ireland  in  1771.  He  met 
Irishmen  in  Paris  and  encouraged  Irish  revolutionary 
leaders  in  their  plans  to  secure  Irish  independence.* 
On  May  10,  1775,  the  Second  Continental  Congress  met 
at  Philadelphia  and  sent  an  address  to  the  people  of 
Ireland,  in  which  they  enlarged  on  the  wrongs  committed 
against  Ireland,  "in  whose  rich  pastures  many  hungry 
parasites  have  fed  and  grown  strong  to  labor  in  its  de- 
struction,"  and  they  offered  the  whole  region  of  America 
as  a  safe  asylum  for  the  Irish  people,  f  This  was  followed 
by  a  letter  from  Franklin  to  the  people  of  Ireland,  in 
which  he  argued  the  justice  of  the  American  cause  and 
pleaded  for  the  support  of  Ireland. 

In  Ireland,  every  man  not  bound  to  England  by  ties 
of  self-interest  was  with  America,  while  in  America  every 
Irishman  was  a  patriot.  The  seventeenth  century  writings 
of  Molyneoux,  a  Dublin  Irishman,  in  defense  of  Irish  lib- 
erty, became  the  text-book  of  American  freedom,!  and 
while  Burke  and  Barre,  Irishmen  in  the  English  Parliament, 
were  influencing  English  sentiment  in  favor  of  the  Colonies, 
Matthew  Lyons,  Patrick  Henry,  and  other  orators  of  the 
Irish  race  were  using  their  eloquence  to  convince  Ameri- 

*  While  in  Paris,  Franklin  met  Matthew  Carey,  who  had  fled  from 
Ireland  because  of  inflammatory  articles  he  had  published  in  a 
Dublin  paper,  and  gave  him  employment.  Later  Carey  returned  to 
Ireland  and  established  the  "Volunteers'  Journal,"  and  in  1784 
was  tried  for  libel  before  the  House  of  Commons  and  was  imprisoned. 
On  his  release  he  came  to  America  and  established  the  "Pennsyl- 
vania Herald"  and  interested  himself  in  forwarding  education  and  in 
establishing  the  charitable  institutions  for  which  Philadelphia  is 
famous  (Appleton). 

t"The  Struggle  for  American  Independence,"  Sydney  George 
Fisher,  1908,  vol.  i,  p.  330. 

J"The  Legacy  of  Past  Years,"  Lord  Dunraven. 
[91] 


IRISH  CONTRIBUTION  TO  AMERICA'S  INDEPENDENCE 

cans  of  the  desirability  of  separation.  This  required 
considerable  eloquence,  as  it  is  well  known  that  the 
majority  of  the  New  Englanders  and  many  inhabitants 
of  other  colonies  had  no  idea  of  separation  when  hostilities 
commenced. 

We  have  already  seen  that  the  immigration  from  Ire- 
land had  steadily  increased  in  volume,  and  during  the 
years  1772  and  1773  it  reached  the  enormous  number  of 
18,500  persons,  mostly  men.  This  immigration  had  an 
important  bearing  on  affairs  in  the  Colonies,  and  it  should 
be  borne  in  mind  that  many  of  the  immigrants  were  men 
of  education  and  position,  who  came  directly  for  the 
purpose  of  bearing  arms  against  England.*  The  welcome 
they  received  is  illustrated  in  the  following  statement  of 
the  Marquis  de  Chastellux,  a  Frenchman  who  was  in 
America  in  1782: 

"An  Irishman,  the  instant  he  sets  foot  on  American 
soil,  becomes  ipso  facto  an  American.  This  was  uniformly 
the  case  during  the  whole  of  the  late  war.  While  English- 
men and  Scotchmen  were  treated  with  jealousy  and  dis- 
trust, even  with  the  best  recommendations  of  zeal  and 
attachment  to  the  cause,  the  native  of  Ireland  stood  in 
need  of  no  other  certificate  than  his  dialect.  Indeed, 
their  conduct  in  the  late  war  amply  justified  their  favor- 
able opinion,  for  whilst  the  Irish  emigrant  was  fighting 
the  battles  of  America  by  sea  and  land,  the  Irish  merchants, 
principally  of  Charleston,  Baltimore,  and  Philadelphia, 
labored  with  indefatigable  zeal  at  all  hazards  to  promote 

*  Among  many  others  were  Richard  Montgomery,  from  Donegal, 
who  settled  in  New  York,  1773,  brigadier-general,  the  first  to  fall 
in  the  Revolution;  Edward  Hand,  from  Clyduff,  Kings  County, 
who  settled  in  Pennsylvania,  1774,  and  became  brigadier-general; 
James  McHenry,  who  came  from  Ireland  to  Philadelphia  in  1771, 
was  Medical  Director  of  the  Army  and  became  Secretary  of  War  to 
Washington,  January,  1796. 

192] 


IRISH  AND  THE  WAR  FOR  INDEPENDENCE 

the  spirit  of  enterprise,  and  increase  the  wealth  and 
maintain  the  credit  of  the  country.  Their  purses  always 
were  opened,  and  their  persons  devoted  to  the  country's 
cause,  and  on  more  than  one  imminent  occasion  Congress 
itself,  and  the  very  existence  of  America  probably,  owed 
its  preservation  to  the  fidelity  and  firmness  of  the  Irish." 

In  his  "History  of  Ireland,"  1809,  Plowden  said:  "It 
is  a  fact  beyond  question  that  most  of  the  early  successes 
in  America  were  immediately  owing  to  the  vigorous 
exertions  and  prowess  of  the  Irish  immigrants  who  bore 
arms  in  that  cause."  The  "vigorous  exertions  and 
prowess  of  the  Irish"  were  not  confined  to  arms,  but 
extended  to  the  deliberations  of  councils  and  the  Congress, 
the  raising  of  money  to  feed  and  clothe  the  army,  and 
advancing  the  credit  of  the  new  government.  Irishmen 
were  "first  in  war,  first  in  peace,"  and  during  and  im- 
mediately following  the  Revolution,  first  in  the  hearts  of 
their  fellow-Americans,  as  the  following  address  made  by 
George  Washington  Parke  Custis,  grandson  of  Martha 
Washington,  in  1828,  in  answer  to  an  appeal  from  Ire- 
land for  funds  in  aid  of  the  fight  for  Catholic  emancipa- 
tion, would  indicate: 

"And  why  is  this  imposing  appeal  made  to  our  sympa- 
thies? It  is  an  appeal  from  that  very  Ireland  whose 
generous  sons,  alike  in  the  day  of  our  gloom  and  of  our 
glory,  shared  in  our  misfortunes  and  joined  in  our  success; 
who,  with  undaunted  courage  breasted  the  storm  which, 
once  threatening  to  overwhelm  us,  howled  with  fearful 
and  desolating  fury  through  this  now  happy  land;  who, 
with  aspirations  deep  and  fervent  for  pur  cause,  whether 
under  the  walls  of  the  Castle  of  Dublin,  in  the  shock  of 
our  liberty's  battles,  or  in  the  feeble  expiring  accents  of 
famine  and  misery,  amidst  the  horrors  of  the  prison  ships, 


IRISH  CONTRIBUTION  TO  AMERICA'S  INDEPENDENCE 

cried  from  their  hearts,  'God  Save  America.'  Tell  me 
not  of  the  aid  which  we  received  from  another  European 
nation  in  the  struggle  for  independence;  that  aid  was 
most,  nay,  all  essential  to  our  ultimate  success;  but 
remember,  years  of  the  conflict  had  rolled  away.  Of  the 
operatives  in  war — I  mean  the  soldier — up  to  the  coming 
of  the  French,  Ireland  had  furnished  in  the  ratio  of  one 
hundred  for  one  of  any  foreign  nation  whatever. 

"Then  honored  be  the  old  good  service  of  the  sons  of 
Erin,  in  the  War  of  Independence.  Let  the  shamrock  be 
entwined  with  the  laurels  of  the  Revolution,  and  truth 
and  justice,  guiding  the  pen  of  history,  inscribe  on  the 
tablets  of  America's  remembrance  'Eternal  Gratitude  to 
Irishmen.' "  * 


We  shall  now  proceed  to  illustrate  in  a  practical  way 
the  part  played  by  men  of  the  Irish  race  in  securing  the 
independence  of  the  Colonies,  by  evidence  that  is  incon- 
trovertible. The  Declaration  of  Independence,  for  ex- 
ample, is  the  basis  of  American  independence.  No  one 
knows  the  true  origin  of  all  the  members  of  the  Congress 
that  adopted  it,  and  it  has  been  the  practice  to  claim 
English  descent  for  every  man  of  importance  in  American 
history  unless  his  name  leaves  no  doubt  of  other  nation- 
ality; but  the  following  facts  are  interesting: 

John  Hancock,  President  of  the  Congress,  was  the  des- 
cendant of  an  immigrant  from  Ulster,  Ireland. 

Charles  Thompson,  Secretary  of  Congress,  who  made  the 
first  finished  copy  of  the  Declaration,  was  born  in 
Maghera,  County  Deny,  Ireland. 

John  Nixon,  Member  of  the  Pennsylvania  Council  of 
Safety,  who  first  publicly  read  the  Declaration,  from 
the  steps  of  the  State  House  in  Philadelphia,  July 

*  "  Case  of  Ireland  Stated,"  Burke. 
[94] 


IRISH  AND  THE  WAR  FOR  INDEPENDENCE 

8,  1776,  was  the  son  of  Richard  Nixon,  of  County 
Wexford,  Ireland. 

John  Dunlap,  who  first  printed  the  document,  was  born 
in  Strabane,  County  Tyrone,  Ireland. 

Among  the  signers  of  the  Declaration  who  were  known 
to  be  of  Irish  descent,  besides  John  Hancock,  were  the 
following: 

Matthew  Thornton,  N.  H.,  whose  father  came  from 
Ireland. 

John  Hart,  N.  J.,  whose  ancestor  from  Ireland  settled 
in  Jersey. 

James  Smith,  Penna.,  born  in  Ireland,  came  to  America 
in  1729. 

George  Taylor,  Penna.,  born  in  Ireland,  came  to  Amer- 
ica as  a  redemptioner. 

George  Reed,  Delaware,  son  of  John  Reed  who  was  born 
in  Dublin. 

Thomas  McKean,  Delaware;  father  and  mother  born 
in  Ireland. 

Charles  Carroll,  grandson  of  Charles  Carroll,  an  Irish 
Catholic  who  emigrated  to  America  in  1689. 

Edward  Rutledge,  South  Carolina,  son  of  Dr.  John 
Rutledge,  who  came  from  Ireland  to  America  in  1735. 

Thomas  Lynch,  South  Carolina,  grandson  of  Thomas 
Lynch,  a  native  of  Galway,  who  went  to  Austria  after  the 
Irish  Revolution  of  1691. 

Robert  Treat  Paine,  Massachusetts,  descendant  of 
Robert  O'Neill,  who  changed  his  name  to  Paine  and 
emigrated  to  America. 

George  Taylor,  in  the  above  list,  was  the  lessee  of  the 
Durham  Furnace,  the  first  iron  works  in  America,  at 
the  time  when  it  was  turning  out  shot  and  shell  for 
Washington's  army. 

7  [95] 


IRISH  CONTRIBUTION  TO  AMERICA'S  INDEPENDENCE 

American  history  records  the  fact  that  Robert  Morris 
was  "the  financier  of  the  Revolution,"  and  tells  how  he 
later  occupied  a  debtors'  prison  because  of  advances  made 
to  the  Government;  but  we  never  hear  of  Oliver  Pollock, 
a  native  of  Ireland,  who  settled  in  Carlisle,  Pa.,  1760,  who 
from  1777  to  1783  made  advances  to  the  province  of 
Virginia  and  the  Continental  government,  on  the  basis  of 
his  own  credit,  to  the  amount  of  $300,000,  over  $100,000 
of  which  amount  had  not  been  repaid  to  him  at  the  time 
of  his  death;  and  Edward  Fox,  a  native  of  Dublin,  who 
came  to  America  in  1775  was  ruined  by  the  large  advances 
he  made  to  Robert  Morris  and  the  latter's  associates,  a 
decision  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  Pennsylvania  (2  Norris' 
Reports,  512),  showing  that  in  1797  these  gentlemen  owed 
Edward  Fox  the  sum  of  $900,000.  When  the  Continental 
army  was  in  dire  distress  and  Congress  unable  to  raise  the 
money  to  supply  its  needs,  a  number  of  gentlemen  of 
Philadelphia  conceived  and  put  into  operation  "the  plan 
of  the  Bank  of  Pennsylvania"  for  supplying  the  army  with 
provisions  and  clothing.  Robert  Morris  headed  the  list 
of  subscribers  with  a  subscription  of  £10,000.  Blair  Mc- 
Clenachan,  a  native  of  Ireland,  subscribed  an  equal 
amount,  and  the  following  Irishmen  subscribed  the 
amounts  set  opposite  their  names: 

J.  M.  Nesbitt.  .  ..£5000 


James  Mease 

Thomas  Barclay 

HughShiell 

John  Dunlap 

John    Nixon,    father   from   Wexford, 


;  .5000 
'5000 
'5000 
'4000 

'5000 
'2000 
'4000 

John  Murray  (firm  of  Bunner,  Murray 
&Co.) "6000 

[96] 


Ireland . 


George  Campbell . 
John  Mease. 


IRISH  AND  THE  WAR  FOR  INDEPENDENCE 

John  Patton £  2000 

Benjamin  Fuller "  2000 

George  Meade  &  Co.  (members  Irish)    "  2000 

John  Donaldson "  2000 

Kean  &  Nichols "  4000 

James  Caldwell "  1000 

John  Shee "  1000 

Sharp  Delany "  1000 

Tench  Francis "  5500 

John  Mitchell "  2000  Hibernian  Society 

Joseph  Carson "  4000 

Thomas  McKean "  2500 

The  above  named-subscribers  were  members  of  the 
Friendly  Sons  of  St.  Patrick  and  the  Hibernian  Society. 
They  were  all  born  in  Ireland,  except  John  Nixon,  whose 
father  came  from  County  Wexford.  Robert  Morris,  who 
was  a  native  of  England,  was  an  honorary  member  of  the 
Friendly  Sons,  as  were  also  William  Bingham,  Richard 
Peters,  Samuel  Meredith,  and  Henry  Hill,  who,  in  ad- 
dition to  the  above,  subscribed  £20,000  to  the  bank. 
Thus,  of  the  total  amount  subscribed  to  supply  the  army 
(£315,000)  £112,000  was  subscribed  by  men  who  were 
members  of  the  Friendly  Sons  of  St.  Patrick  and  the 
Hibernian  Society.* 

When  the  Continental  soldiers  were  half  starved,  half 
clothed,  and  their  spirits  so  low  that  their  commanders  had 
almost  despaired  of  holding  the  army  together,  an  Irish 
ditty  was  used  to  revive  their  sinking  spirits,  as  the 
following  letter,  written  by  Richard  Peters,  of  Philadelphia, 
to  General  Anthony  Wayne,  will  show: 

"I  heard  an  Irishman  the  other  day  sing  a  very  foolish 
ballad  of  three  or  four  verses,  yet  its  simplicity  struck  me 

*  The  information  regarding  contributions  of  money  was  obtained 
from  the  records  of  the  Friendly  Sons  of  St.  Patrick  and  the  Hi- 
bernian Society,  of  Philadelphia,  edited  by  John  H.  Campbell. 

[97] 


IRISH  CONTRIBUTION  TO  AMERICA'S  INDEPENDENCE 

and  I  have  this  rainy  morning  scribbled  the  enclosed.  I 
have  adopted,  with  a  few  alterations,  the  first  verse,  and 
except  for  another  line  or  two,  am  answerable  for  both  the 
folly  and  length  of  the  rest.  I  send  it  to  you  that  you  may 
give  it  to  some  of  your  singing  sergeants  or  corporals,  as  I 
wish  the  poor  devil  to  be  introduced  into  the  army  under 
the  protection  of  at  least  a  non-commissioned  officer.  It 
goes  to  the  tune  of  an  Irish  lilt,  which  I  have  often  heard 

the  fif  ers  play I  am  a  great  believer  of  ballads 

and  believe  that  more  can  be  achieved  by  a  few  occasional 
simple  songs  than  by  an  hundred  recommendations  of 
Congress,  especially  considering  how  few  attend  to  or  read 
them." 

(Signed)     RICHARD  PETERS. 

General  Wayne  replied  that  he  had  given  the  song  to 
some  "Singing  Colonels.''* 


The  first  armed  attack  on  land  against  the  British  was 
the  capture  of  the  arms  and  ammunition  at  Portsmouth, 
four  months  before  the  battle  of  Lexington.  The  attack 
was  led  by  John  Sullivan  (afterward  major  general),  the 
son  of  Owen  Sullivan,  a  native  of  Limerick,  Ireland. 

The  first  decisive  victory  of  the  Revolution  for  the 
American  cause  was  won  at  Moore's  Creek  Bridge,  near 
Wilmington,  N.  C.,  February,  1776,  when  1500  Tories 
surrendered  to  the  troops  under  command  of  Colonel 
(afterward  General)  James  Moore,  descendant  of  Roger 
O'More,  a  leader  of  the  Irish  Rebellion  of  1641.  (Apple- 
ton's  "American  Biography.") 

The  first  general  officer  killed  on  the  American  side  was 
General  Richard  Montgomery,  who  fell  leading  the  attack 
*  Register  of  Pennsylvania,  vol.  iv,  No.  7,  p.  47. 
[98] 


IRISH  AND  THE  WAR  FOR  INDEPENDENCE 

on  Quebec,  December  31,  1775.  General  Montgomery 
was  born  in  the  County  Donegal  and  settled  in  New  York 
State  in  1773. 

The  first  attack  against  the  British  on  water  was  the 
capture  of  a  British  armed  schooner  in  Machias  Bay,  May 
11,  1775.  The  capture  was  made  by  Jeremiah  O'Brien, 
assisted  by  his  four  brothers  and  some  other  volunteers. 
(Harper's  "Cyclopedia  of  American  History.") 

The  first  Commodore  of  the  American  navy  was  John 
Barry,  born  in  County  Wexford,  Ireland,  in  1745. 


Turning  now  to  the  Generals  of  the  Continental  Army, 
we  find  among  them  the  following  men  of  Irish  origin: 

Richard  Montgomery,  Major  General,  born  in  Donegal, 
Ireland. 

Thomas  Con  way  (Count  de  Conway,  of  France),  Major 
General,  born  in  Ireland. 

John  Sullivan,  Major  General,  son  of  Owen  Sullivan  who 
was  born  in  Limerick,  Ireland. 

Henry  Knox,  Major  General,  son  of  Andrew  Knox  who 
was  born  in  Ireland. 

John  Armstrong,  Brigadier-General,  born  in  Ireland. 

William  Thompson,  Brigadier-General,  born  in  Ireland. 

Andrew  Lewis,  Brigadier-General,  born  in  Donegal, 
Ireland. 

William  Maxwell,  Brigadier-General,  born  in  Ireland. 

Anthony  Wayne,  Brigadier-General,  father  born  in  Ire- 
land. 

James  Clinton,  Brigadier-General,  son  of  Charles 
Clinton  who  was  born  in  County  Longford,  Ireland. 

James  Moore,  Brigadier-General,  descendant  of  Roger 
O'More,  a  leader  of  the  Irish  Rebellion  of  1641. 

Joseph  Reed,  Brigadier-General,  father  born  in  Ireland. 


IRISH  CONTRIBUTION  TO  AMERICA'S  INDEPENDENCE  * 

John  Nixon,  Brigadier-General,  son  of  Richard  Nixon, 
of  County  Wexford,  Ireland. 

William  Irvine,  Brigadier-General,  born  in  Enniskillen, 
County  Fermanagh,  Ireland. 

Edward  Hand,  Brigadier-General,  born  in  Clyduff, 
King's  County,  Ireland. 

Richard  Butler,  Brigadier-General,  born  in  the  parish 
of  St.  Bride's,  Dublin. 

Walter  Stewart,  Brevet  Brigadier-General,  born  in  Ire- 
land. 

Stephen  Moylan,  Brevet  Brigadier-General,  and  Chief 
of  Cavalry,  born  in  Cork,  Ireland. 

James  Cochran,  Surgeon-General,  parents  born  in  Ire- 
land. 


We  have  already  referred  to  the  Irishmen  in  the  French 
service.  When  the  French  Government  decided  to  send 
aid  to  the  Colonies,  among  the  first  troops  sent  were  the 
Dillon,  Berwick,  Roche-Fermoy,  and  Walsh  regiments  of 
the  Irish  Brigade,  composed  exclusively  of  Irishmen;  and 
among  the  French  officers  in  the  Continental  Army  whose 
names  appear  in  the  "Historical  Register  of  the  Officers  of 
the  Continental  Army"  were  the  following  who  bore 
distinctively  Irish  names: 

Jacques  Philippe  D'Arcy,  Captain,  died  at  Savannah,  son 
of  Patrick  D'Arcy,  who  was  born  in  Galway,  Ireland, 
and  was  appointed  marechal-de-champ  in  ^France, 
1770. 

Captain  Commandant  O'Neill,  wounded  at  Savannah. 
(He  represented  the  fifth  generation  of  those  who  had 
served  the  King  of  France  in  the  Dillon  Regiment, 
since  the  passage  of  Irishmen  into  France.) 

Arthur  Dillon  (Count  de  Dillon),  Colonel,  March,  1772,  in 
France. 

[1001 


IRISH  AND  THE  WAR  FOR  INDEPENDENCE 

Barthelemy  Dillon,  Lieutenant-Colonel,  born  in  Ireland, 

1729. 

Denis  d'Hubart  Du  Barry,  Captain,  1776. 
Count  de  Dune  (name  also  given  as  O'Dunn),  "took  part 

in  all  engagements  of  the  campaign." 
Isidore  Lynch,  Captain  in  Dillon  Regiment. 
Captain  Macdonnal,  of  second  Dillon  Regiment. 
Captain  Mullens,  Lieutenant  in  the  Regiment  de  Berwick. 
Lieutenant  de  la  Roche  Negley,  wounded  at  Savannah. 
Lieutenant  O'Farrell,  of  the  Dillon  Regiment,  wounded 

at  Savannah. 

Jacques  O'Moran,  Major,  born  in  Ireland. 
Jacques  Shee,  Captain,  born  in  Ireland. 
Georges  Taafe,  Lieutenant,  killed  at  Savannah,  1779,  born 

in  Ireland. 
Ferdinand  O'Neill,  Captain  of  Lee's  Battalion  of  Light 

Dragoons,  Pulaski  Legion. 


The  very  highest  estimate  of  the  patriotic  portion  of  the 
population  of  the  colonies  places  it  at  two-thirds,  or  about 
1,400,000,  of  the  white  inhabitants.  A.  R.  Fisher,  in  his 
"True  History  of  the  American  Revolution,"  says:  "If 
there  were  really  1,400,000  enthusiastic  patriots,  they 
would  surely  have  furnished  more  than  the  11,000  men 
which  Washington  usually  had.  Even  in  their  direst  need 
and  by  the  greatest  urging  and  compulsion  of  all  the 
patriotic  leaders  by  offering  bounties,  gifts  of  land,  and  by 
drafting,  they  could  never  get  quite  25,000  all  told." 
While  the  New  Englanders  were  active  in  the  protection 
of  their  own  homes  and  in  opposing  the  stamp  tax  and 
duties  which  affected  their  own  pockets,  they  were  rather 
lukewarm  in  their  support  of  the  principle  that  America 
was  to  be  absolutely  free  and  independent  of  England, 

[101] 


IRISH  CONTRIBUTION  TO  AMERICA'S  INDEPENDENCE 

and  while  the  first  armed  resistance  to  British  authority 
occurred  on  New  England  soil,  the  siege  of  Boston,  1775, 
was  the  last  struggle  between  the  Continental  Army  and 
English  troops  in  New  England,  and  King  Philip's  Indian 
War  of  1675  was  "far  more  grievous  to  New  England  than 
the  Revolution."*  All  the  colonies  furnished  a  large 
number  of  militia,  who  were  more  or  less  "home  guards," 
but  most  of  the  real  fighting  was  done  by  the  Continental 
Line,  of  which  a  large  proportion  were  men  of  the  Irish 
race.  "One  of  the  offences  charged  upon  the  Irish,  and 
amongst  the  many  pretexts  for  refusing  redress  to  the 
Catholics  of  Ireland,  was  that  sixteen  thousand  of  them 
fought  on  the  side  of  America."!  It  would  be  difficult  to 
give  exact  figures  as  to  the  number  of  Irish  that  fought 
on  the  side  of  America,  for,  apart  from  the  natives  of  Ire- 
land who  came  to  America  in  such  large  numbers  before 
and  during  the  Revolution,  there  were  thousands  of  native 
Americans  who  were  of  Irish  descent.  Furthermore,  if 
there  were  16,000  Irish  Catholics  in  the  American  army, 
there  was  an  equal  or  greater  number  of  Irish  Presbyterians 
and  Episcopalians.  That  the  Irish  were  loyal  to  the 
American  cause,  and  that  they  helped  to  establish  the 
new  nation  are  facts  which,  while  ignored  in  the  school 
histories,  are  supported  by  the  testimony  of  men  who  lived 
at  a  time  when  "Anglophobia"  had  not  begun  to  affect  the 
thoughts  of  American  writers.  In  December,  1781,  Gen- 
eral George  Washington  was  elected  an  "adopted"  mem- 
ber of  the  Society  of  the  Friendly  Sons  of  St.  Patrick, 
of  Philadelphia,  and  in  his  letter  of  acceptance  to  the 


*  Drake,  "History  of  Boston." 
in  ] 

[102] 


t  From  an  address  made  in  New  York,  1809,  by  William  J. 
MacNevin. 


IRISH  AND  THE  WAR  FOR  INDEPENDENCE 

President  of  the  Society  he  said:  "  I  accept  with  singular 
pleasure  the  ensign  of  so  worthy  a  fraternity  as  that  of 
the  Friendly  Sons  of  St.  Patrick — a  society  distinguished 
for  the  firm  adherence  of  its  members  to  the  glorious  cause 
in  which  we  are  embarked."  But  this  is  not  all,  for  in  an 
address  to  the  Catholics  of  the  United  States  (most  of 
whom  were  Irish),  in  1790,  President  Washington  said: 
"I  hope  ever  to  see  America  amongst  the  foremost  nations 
in  examples  of  justice  and  liberality,  and  I  presume  that 
your  fellow  citizens  will  not  forget  the  patriotic  part  which 
you  took  in  the  accomplishment  of  their  revolution  and  in 
the  establishment  of  their  government." 


The  most  conclusive  evidence  of  the  prominence  of  the 
Irish  race  in  the  accomplishment  of  America's  independ- 
ence is  to  be  found  in  the  abundance  of  Irish  names  in 
the  lists  of  soldiers  of  the  Revolutionary  War.  As  the 
official  lists  do  not  contain  nationality  of  soldiers,  it  would 
be  impossible  to  judge  by  names  alone  those  who  were  of 
Irish  blood,  but  bearing  in  mind  the  fact  that  those  who 
bore  real  Irish  names  constituted  only  a  small  percentage 
of  the  number  who  were  actually  of  Irish  birth  or  descent, 
the  lists  to  follow  will  serve  to  indicate  the  large  number 
of  men  of  Irish  blood  that  served  in  the  Revolutionary 
Army. 

Irish  names  on  rolls  of  the  Minutemen  of  Lexington 
and  Concord: 

Daniel  Bagley  John  Bradlee 

John  Barrett  William  Bradley 

John  Boyd  Joseph  Burke 

Daniel  Bradley  Richard  Burke 

[103] 


IRISH  CONTRIBUTION  TO  AMERICA'S  INDEPENDENCE 


Joseph  Carroll 
Cornelius  Cochran 
William  Cochran 
Henry  Cogen 
John  Collins 
Jeremiah  Collins 
Daniel  Collins 
William  Connors 
John  Crehore 
Timothy  Crehore 
William  Crehore 
James  Dempsey 
Philip  Donehue 
Benjamin  Donnell 
James  Donnell 
Joseph  Donnell 
John  Donnelly 
John  Downing 
Andrew  Dunigan 
John  Fadden 
Thomas  Fanning 
William  Fanning 
John  Farley 
Michael  Farley 
John  Fay 
Thomas  Fay 
Timothy  Fay 
William  Fay 
John  Flood 
William  Flood 
John  Foley 
Matthew  Gilligen 
Richard  Gilpatrick 
James  Gleeson 
John  Gleeson 
Thomas  Gleason 
John  Golden 
Joseph  Golden 


James  Gooly 
John  Grace 
Daniel  Griffin 
Joseph  Griffin 
John  Hacket 
Joseph  Hacket 
Wait  Burke 
Daniel  Carey 
Joseph  Carey 
Peter  Carey 
William  Carey 
Silas  Carty 
John  Carroll 
Patrick  Carrell 
Jonathan  Carroll 
Joel  Hogan 
John  Haley 
Thomas  Haley 
William  Haley 
John  Healy 
John  Holland 
John  Hugh 
David  Kelly 
George  Kelly 
John  Kelly 
Patrick  Kelly 
Peter  Kelly 
Richard  Kelly 
Stephen  Kelly 
Samuel  Kelly 
James  Kenny 
David  Kenny 
John  Kenny 
Nathaniel  Kenny 
Thomas  Kenny 
William  Kenny 
Jeremiah  Kinney 
Daniel  Lary 


[104] 


IRISH  AND  THE  WAR  FOR  INDEPENDENCE 


Samuel  Lauchlin 
James  Logan 
Joseph  McAnnell 
Thomas  McBride 
John  McCarty 
Andrew  McCausland 
John  McCullin 
Michael  McDonnell 
James  McFadden 
Ebenezer  McFarley 
Thomas  McFarley 
Henry  McDonegal 
John  McGrah 
Daniel  McGuire 
Patrick  McKeen 
James  McKenny 
Joseph  McKenny 
John  McLeary 
David  McLeary 
John  McMullen 
Thomas  McMullen 
John  Mack 
John  Madden 
Daniel  Mahon 
James  Mallone 
John  Manning 
Robert  Manning 


Samuel  Manning 
Thomas  Manning 
Timothy  Manning 
William  Manning 
James  Magoone 
John  Mehoney 
Daniel  Mullikin 
Ebenezer  Mullikin 
John  Murphy 
Patrick  Newjent 
Patrick  O'Brien 
Richard  O'Brien 
Daniel  Shay 
John  Shea 
Edward  Tappan 
Michael  Tappan 
John  Walsh 
Joseph  Walsh 
Benjamin  Walsh 
Edward  Welsh 
John  Welsh 
Joseph  Welsh 
Samuel  Welsh 
Thomas  Welsh 
Walter  Welsh 
William  Welsh 


Irish  names  of  American  officers  and  soldiers  at  the 
Battle  of  Bunker  Hill: 


Colonel  John  Nixon 
Major  Andrew  McClary 
Captain  Samuel  Dunn 
Captain  Timothy  Carey 
Captain  Michael  Gleason 
Captain  Nathaniel  Healy 
Captain  Jeremiah  Oilman 


Captain  Daniel  Gallusha 
Captain  John  Ford 
Lieut.  Charles  Dougherty 
Lieut.  Joseph  Welsh 
Lieut.  Daniel  Collins 
James  Barry 
John  Barry 


•1105] 


IRISH  CONTRIBUTION  TO  AMERICA'S  INDEPENDENCE 


Joseph  Barry 
John  Bryan 
John  Began 
William  Bogan 
Wait  Burk 
Tilly  Burk 
Josiah  Burk 
Edward  Burk 
Thomas  Burk 
Richard  Burk 
Joseph  Burne 
Thomas  Burn 
William  Connor 
John  Connor 
David  Connor 
Edward  Connor 
James  Connor 
John  Coner 
John  Cronyn 
Isaac  Collins 
Stephen  Collins 
Demerel  Collins 
Lemuel  Collins 
Richard  Collins 
Henry  Collins 
Daniel  Collins 
Ambrose  Collins 
David  Collins 
Peter  Collins 
John  Collins 
Aaron  Carey 
Luther  Carey 
Caleb  Carey 
Arthur  Carey 
Josiah  Carey 
Jesse  Carey 
Joshua  Carey 
John  Coy 


Daniel  Callahan 
Robert  Callaghan 
Joseph  Cavenaugh 
Josiah  Cummings 
John  Cummings 
Charles  Casity 
Arthur  Collamore 
Samuel  Carr 
David  Coye 
Ambrose  Craggin 
Edward  Casey 
Michael  Clary 
Jeremiah  Cady 
Ebenezer  Craggin 
Daniel  Carmical 
William  Carrall 
James  Carrall 
William  Casey 
Laurence  Carrol 
John  Connelly 
Francis  Crowley 
Hugh  Cargill 
John  Carel 
Caleb  Comings 
John  Calahan 
William  Dougherty 
Thomas  Dougherty 
William  Dunn  (2) 
John  Dougherty 
John  Dun 
James  Dunn 
James  Donnell 
Jotham  Donnell 
Thomas  Doyle 
Patrick  Doyle 
Charles  Doroughty 
John  Dougharty 
Elijah  Doyle 


[106] 


IRISH  AND  THE  WAR  FOR  INDEPENDENCE 


Edward  Finiken 
John  Flyn 
John  Foy 
Thomas  Finn 
Edward  Fogarty 
David  Fung 
James  Fitzgerald 
John  Foye 
Jacob  Flyn 
John  Fitchjeril 
Kendel  Farley 
Matthew  Gilligan 
John  Gleason 
William  Oilman 
William  Gilmore 
Joseph  Griffin 
Richard  Gilpatrick 
Joshua  Gilpatrick 
John  Gilmor 
Joseph  Gleason 
Thomas  Gleason 
Daniel  Griffin 
Joseph  Griffin 
Nathaniel  Griffin 
Daniel  Leary 
William  Linnehan 
Bartholomew  Lynch 
John  Laughton 
John  McCartney 
John  McCoy 
Thomas  McLaughlin 
Thomas  McCullough 
George  McCleary 
Robert  McCleary 
Peter  McGee 
Terrance  McMahon 
James  McCormick 
Daniel  McNamara 


John  McDonald 
Joseph  McDonnell 
Joseph  McLallin 
William  McKenny 
John  McCullough 
John  McGrath 
John  McLarty 
Hugh  McCarthy 
James  McGraw 
William  McCleary 
Michael  McDonald 
Robert  McCormick 
James  McCorrer 
Morris  McCleary 
William  McClure 
John  McDonald 
John  McGuire 
James  McFadden 
Lawrence  McLaughlin 
David  McElroy 
James  McCoy 
James  McCullough 
Daniel  McCarthy 
Daniel  Maguire 
John  Morrison 
Israel  Murphy 
Thomas  Mahoney 
William  Murphy 
Daniel  Morrison 
James  Milliken 
Daniel  Moore 
Daniel  Maley 
Hugh  Morrison 
James  Milliken 
Joseph  Manning 
Peter  Martin 
Richard  Murphy 
Edward  Madden 


[107 


IRISH  CONTRIBUTION  TO  AMERICA'S  INDEPENDENCE 


Daniel  Murphy 
John  Manning 
John  Mitchel 
John  Madden 
Michael  Minihan 
Edward  Manning 
Patrick  Mahoney 
John  Noonan 
John  O'Connor 
Dennis  O'Brien 
Bryant  Ryan 
Cornelius  Ryan 
John  Ryan 
Thomas  Ryan 
Dennis  Ryan 
James  Ryan 
Augustus  Ryan 
Martin  Rourke 
Daniel  Rioden 
Timothy  Roach 
Thomas  Roach 
James  Richey 
Fred  Roach 
John  Rannor 
John  Rickey 
John  Savage 
Jeremiah  Scanlon 
John  Sullivan 
Timothy  Sullivan 
Oliver  Sullivan 
Ebenezer  Sullivan 


Patrick  Shea 
Richard  Shea 
James  Shay 
Daniel  Shay 
John  Shay 
John  Shield 
John  Shanahan 
Patrick  Scandalin 
Thomas  Savage 
Patrick  Tracey 
Thomas  Tobin 
Mathew  Tobin 
Peter  Welch 
James  Welch 
Jonas  Welch 
Silas  Welch 
John  Wolley 
Joseph  Welch 
Walter  Welch 
Isaach  Welch 
Richard  Welch 
Richard  Welch 
John  Welch 
Mathias  Welch 
Benjamin  Welch 
John  Welch 
William  Welch 
William  Welch 
Edmund  Welch 
Joseph  Welch 
William  Welch 


If,  as  Senator  Lodge  says,  the  inhabitants  of  Massachu- 
setts at  the  period  of  the  Revolution  "were  almost  wholly 
of  pure  English  descent,"  that  may  account  for  the  fact 
that  Massachusetts  furnished  more  Tories  during  the 

[108] 


IRISH  AND  THE  WAR  FOR  INDEPENDENCE 

Revolution  than  any  other  province ;  but  there  were  evi- 
dently enough  Irish  ready  to  bear  arms  in  the  patriot 
cause,  as  the  muster  rolls  of  Massachusetts  soldiers  and 
sailors  of  the  Revolution  clearly  prove.  In  the  lists 
published  by  the  State  of  Massachusetts  the  name  O'Brien 
under  its  various  forms  occurs  369  times;  O'Neill,  48 
times;  Ryan  and  Rion,  92  times;  Sullivan,  47;  Murphy 
and  Morfey,  80;  Higgins,  140;  Gleason,  140;  McCarthy, 
42;  Maloney,  54;  Larkin,  69.  Altogether  there  are  more 
than  2000  names  of  Irish  origin — McSweeneys,  O'Donnells, 
Mahoneys,  McGuires,  McMahons,  Connors,  Dalys,  Dona- 
hues, Donovans,  Kennedys,  Kellys,  Kenneys,  Learys,  etc., 
by  the  hundreds,  to  say  nothing  of  thousands  of  men  of 
Irish  nationality  who  bore  English  and  Scotch-sounding 
names. 


The  following  letter,  written  by  no  less  an  authority  on 
Pennsylvania  history  than  William  H.  Egle,  State  Libra- 
rian to  the  late  Dr.  Charles  J.  Stille,  which  the  latter 
printed  in  his  "Anthony  Wayne  and  the  Pennsylvania 
Line,"  illustrates  the  effort  made  by  historians  to  detract 
from  the  credit  due  to  the  Irish  for  their  part  in  the 
Revolution: 

State  Library  of  Pennsylvania, 

Harrisburg,  Pa.,  April  11,  1892. 
Charles  J.  Stille,  LL.D., 

Philadelphia. 
My  dear  Sir: 

In  reply  to  your  inquiry  of  9th  April,  permit  me  to  state 
that  Mr.  Bancroft  and  other  writers  were  entirely  wrong 
in  their  statements  as  to  the  nationality  of  the  soldiers  of 

[109] 


IRISH  CONTRIBUTION  TO  AMERICA'S  INDEPENDENCE 

Wayne's  Division.  With  the  exception  of  the  Scotch- 
Irish  who  formed  about  two-thirds  of  his  force,  the  re- 
mainder were  almost  entirely  of  German  parentage.  In 
the  French  and  Indian  War  the  emigrants  from  the 
Province  of  Ulster  were  chiefly  selected,  while  those  of 
pure  Irish  descent  or  migration  were  rejected  on  the 
ground  that  they  were  Roman  Catholics  and  that  they 
would  not  be  loyal  to  the  Province  when  opposed  by  the 
French  troops.  If  you  so  desire,  when  the  opportune 
time  arrives,  I  might  amplify  what  I  have  here  alluded 
to.  The  Irish  were  not  in  it,  although  all  immigrants 
from  Ireland  were  thus  claimed.  The  facts  are,  few  Irish 
came  until  after  the  War  of  the  Revolution.  I  doubt  if 
there  were  300  persons  of  Irish  birth  (Roman  Catholic 
and  Celtic)  in  the  war  from  Pennsylvania. 
Yours  with  respect, 

(Signed)  William  H.  Egle. 

Is  there  such  a  thing  as  a  "pure  Irish  Celt"?  Is  it  not 
true  that  hundreds  of  Roman  Catholic  Irish  families  in 
the  bog  lands  of  the  south  and  west  of  Ireland,  with  names 
like  Smith,  Johnson,  Fleming,  Nash,  Molyneaux,  Dever- 
eaux,  Lestrange,  DeCourcey,  Montgomery,  etc.,  have  as 
much  Celtic  blood  in  them  as  the  McGuires,  McLaughlins, 
McMullens,  O'Briens,  and  O'Reillys,  with  whom  they  have 
intermarried  for  centuries?  On  the  other  hand,  are  the 
Maguires,  Bryans,  Ryans,  Reillys,  Kennedys,  Sweeneys, 
etc.,  of  the  Province  of  Ulster  any  less  Celtic  Irish  be- 
cause they  live  in  Ulster  and  are  Protestants?  Is  Thomas 
Flaherty,  Presbyterian  clergyman,  "Scotch-Irish"  and 
Patrick  O'Flaherty,  ditch  digger,  "Celtic-Irish"  because 
he  is  a  Roman  Catholic?  Why  should  Edward  Hand, 

[1101 


IRISH  AND  THE  WAR  FOR  INDEPENDENCE 

Brigadier  General  in  the  Revolutionary  army,  born  in 
Ireland,  a  Protestant,  be  classed  as  "Scotch-Irish,"  and 
Patrick  Hand,  private  in  the  Third  Pennsylvania  Conti- 
nental Regiment,  a  Roman  Catholic,  simply  as  "  Irish"  ? 
What  is  the  racial  difference  between  Dennis  McKnight, 
of  the  County  Mayo,  and  David  Knight,  of  the  County 
Antrim,  if  Dennis's  mother's  maiden  name  was  Knox  and 
David's  mother's  maiden  name  was  Maguire?  Which 
one  is  "Scotch-Irish"?  ^ 

In  the  foregoing  letter  Dr.  Egle  makes  the  following 
assertions : 

1.  That  few  Irish  came  to  America  until  after  the 

Revolution. 

2.  That  in  the  French  and  Indian  War  the  immigrants 

from  Ulster  were  chiefly  selected,  while  those  of 
"pure  Irish  descent  or  migration"  were  rejected. 

3.  He  doubts  if  there  were  300  persons  of  Irish  birth 

(Roman  Catholic  and  Celtic)   in  the  war  from 
Pennsylvania. 

4.  That  two-thirds  of  the  soldiers  of  Wayne's  Division 

(the  Pennsylvania  Line)  were  "Scotch-Irish." 

In  previous  chapters  of  this  work  we  have  shown  that 
the  Irish  came  to  America  in  very  large  numbers  before 
the  Revolution.  The  three  remaining  statements  are 
refuted  by  material  edited  and  published  under  the  direc- 
tion of  Dr.  Egle  himself  while  State  Librarian.  The 
Pennsylvania  Archives,  notably  Vols.  I,  II,  Second  Series, 
edited  by  Dr.  William  H.  Egle  and  John  B.  Linn,  contain 
lists  of  Pennsylvania  soldiers  in  the  Colonial  wars  and  the 
Revolutionary  War.  The  nationality  of  soldiers  is,  with 
few  exceptions,  not  stated,  but  on  pages  490  to  501  of 
8  [ill] 


IRISH  CONTRIBUTION  TO  AMERICA'S  INDEPENDENCE 

Vol.  II,  2d  Series,  Penna.  Archives,  are  lists  of  the  soldiers 
in  four  companies  of  Provincial  Militia,  in  which,  for- 
tunately, the  country  of  birth  is  in  most  instances  given. 
The  muster  rolls  are  dated  August  and  September,  1746, 
while  the  French  and  Indian  War  was  in  progress.  As 
the  roll  of  the  first  company  includes  birthplaces  of  only 
half  the  members,  we  shall  consider  the  other  three,  com- 
manded by  Capt.  William  Trent,  Capt.  Samuel  Shannon, 
and  Capt.  Samuel  Perry.  These  three  companies  con- 
tained 324  men,  country  of  birth  of  301  being  mentioned. 
Of  the  latter,  167  whose  names  are  printed  below  were 
born  in  Ireland.  An  examination  of  these  names  will 
enable  the  reader  to  judge  how  ridiculous  the  claim  is  that 
the  real  Irish  were  excluded  from  the  ranks  during  the 
French  and  Indian  War: 

Adams,  Emanuel  Carroll,  John 

Almond,  Thomas  Carson,  Robert 

Armsbie,  Luke  Carty,  Thomas 

Armstrong,  Joseph  Cay  ton,  Edward 

Baem,  David  Cooley,  William 

Barnett,  James  Corbet,  John 

Barr,  Thomas  Corneallie,  Cornelius 

Bayman,  Nathaniel  Coyle,  Charles 

Black,  Thomas  Crowley,  Bartholomew 

Boyd,  John  Crowley,  James 

Boyle,  James  Davis,  Valentine 

Brennan,  Edward  Davis,  Edward 

Brennan,  James  Dick,  John 

Burn,  Edward  Dennahew,  Florence 

Burns,  Edward  Dermott,  Matthew 

Burns,  John  Donnelly,  John 

Byrn,  Charles  Donally,  Felix 

Caldwell,  Robert  Donohue,  Timothy 

Carney,  Daniel  Dunbar,  John 

Carr,  George  Eakin,  Michael 

[1121 


IRISH  AND  THE  WAR  FOR  INDEPENDENCE 


Ensley,  John 
Fay,  Matthew 
Frazier,  Andrew 
Fitzpatrick,  Dennis 
Flannigan,  George 
Flood,  John 
Fox,  Thomas 
Futhey,  Henry 
Gallagher,  Felix 
Gallagher,  Thomas 
Gillespie,  Abel 
Gallagher,  Henry 
Goodfellow,  Daniel 
Gethins,  Daniel 
Grace,  William 
Grant,  John 
Hall,  Jonas 
Hammon,  John 
Harkins,  James 
Harris,  James 
Henry,  Henry 
Holland,  Charles 
Hamilton,  James 
Huston,  William 
Johnston,  James 
Jones,  Robert 
Kain,  John 
Kain,  Miles 
Kelly,  Peter 
Kelly,  Daniel 
Kennedy,  Hugh 
Lappin,  Paul 
Lastly,  Barnabas 
Larey,  John 
Laverty,  Patrick 
Lee,  James 
Lee,  Robert 
Lee,  Thomas 


Lindon,  Patrick 
Lindsey,  Walter 
Lome,  Charles 
McAfee,  Robert 
McCabe,  Alexander 
McCalla,  Charles 
McClean,  John 
McDaniel,  Dennis 
McGarvey,  James 
McGuire,  Nicholas 
McKee,  Andrew 
McCarty,  Bartholomew 
McCarty,  Cornelius 
McCarty,  John 
McCloskey,  Henry 
McCord,  William 
McCormick,  Thomas 
McDonald,  Minass 
McGaughy,  John 
*  McGaughy,  William 
McGee,  Thomas 
McGoun,  Patrick 
McGuire,  Philip 
Mcllvaine,  Joseph 
McKee,  William 
McKinney,  Alex. 
McKinny,  James 
McLees,  Archibald 
McLees,  James 
McMahon,  Redmond 
McManus,  James 
McPeak,  James 
Mahan,  Owen 
Malvain,  William 
Mangan,  Owen 
Martin,  Patrick 
Matthews,  George 
Merchant,  William 

[US] 


IRISH  CONTRIBUTION  TO  AMERICA'S  INDEPENDENCE 


Meredith,  Philip 
Miller,  Henry 
Mooney,  Michael 
Mooney,  Patrick 
Morrison,  James 
Murphy,  Michael 
Murphy,  Patrick 
Murphy,  Thomas 
Murphy,  Archibald 
Neal,  John 
Nicholas,  David 
Neigle,  James 
Newman,  Edward 
O' Donnelly,  Arthur 
O'DonnelJ,  Michael 
O'Neale,  Arthur 
Parker,  Anthony 
Priscott,  James 
Raredon,  Michael 
Rea,  Thomas 
Read,  John 
Reynolds,  Edward 
Reynolds,  Patrick 
Richardson,  William 
Rodgers,  James 
Robertson,  William 


Runnell,  Peter 
Russell,  Nicholas 
Savage,  Patrick 
Scott,  Valentine 
Semple,  William 
Shea,  Timothy 
Shortall,  John 
Shortall,  Oliver 
Sim,  John 
Simpson,  James 
Slevan,  John 
Smith,  James 
Stevenson,  James 
Sutliff,  Michael 
Snapes,  Paul 
Sullivan,  Daniel 
Swaney,  Thomas 
Tomey,  John 
Tay,  Daniel 
Tulton,  William 
Turner,  Samuel 
Wasson,  Robert 
Weir,  Owen 
Wilson,  Thomas 
Yorgen,  Dennis 


The  list  of  soldiers  in  Colonel  Washington's  Regi- 
ment of  Virginia  Militia,  engaged  in  the  French  and  Indian 
War,  printed  at  end  of  the  chapter  on  "The  Irish  in  Other 
Provinces,"  is  additional  evidence  that  the  "pure  Irish" 
were  not  rejected  during  the  French  and  Indian  War. 
But  even  if  it  were  true  that  the  emigrants  were  mainly 
from  Ulster,  the  following  list  of  soldiers  born  in  Ireland, 
taken  from  a  "Return  of  a  Full  Company  enlisted  for  the 
Campaign  in  the  Lower  Counties,  by  Capt.  McClughan, 

[114] 


IRISH  AND  THE  WAR  FOR  INDEPENDENCE 

delivered  Wednesday,  the  17th  May,  1758,"  printed  on 
pp.  570-73,  Vol.  II,  2d  S.  Pa.,  in  which  the  County  of  birth 
is  given,  will  show  that  the  Irish  Irish  were  well  repre- 
sented among  the  Ulster  emigrants. 

Black,  George,  from  Armagh,  Ulster 
Connelly,  Bryan,  from  Monaghan,  Ulster 
Crawford,  John,  Donegal,  Ulster 
Dougherty,  John,  Donegal 
Dougherty,  Owen,  Donegal 
Dougherty,  Patrick,  Donegal 
Dunbar,  John,  Tyrone,  Ulster 
Dunfee,  Michael,  Wexford 
Fitzsimmons,  John,  Dublin 
Henderson,  James,  Antrim,  Ulster 
Houston,  Alexander,  "Toboyne" 
Innis,  Timothy,  Kildare 
Jones,  Christopher,  West  Meath 
Kelley,  John,  Down,  Ulster 
Kilpatrick,  Patrick,  "Faughboyne" 
McAnulty,  John,  Londonderry 
McClearn,  James,  Londonderry 
McClelan,  James,  Antrim 
McGill,  Patrick,  "Kilmore" 
Martin,  Hugh,  Tyrone,  Ulster 
Mitchell,  Joseph,  Down,  Ulster 
Mullan,  Daniel,  Dunluce,  Ulster 
Murrain,  John,  Dublin 
Sheerman,  James,  Dublin 
Sloan,  John,  Tyrone 
Stragan,  John,  Londonderry 
Whellan,  Luke,  Waterford 

HIM 


IRISH  CONTRIBUTION  TO  AMERICA'S  INDEPENDENCE 


Vol.  I  (10),  Second  Series,  Pennsylvania  Archives, 
contains  lists  of  names  of  soldiers  in  the  Pennsylvania 
regiments  of  the  Continental  Line  in  the  Revolution. 
The  regiments  are  numbered  First  to  Thirteenth  in- 
clusive, and  to  show  the  falsity  of  Dr.  Egle's  statements 
that  not  more  than  300  Irish  were  in  the  war  from  Penn- 
sylvania, we  give  the  following  list  of  1000  distinctively 
Irish  names  taken  from  the  lists  of  soldiers  in  only  the 
first  six  regiments : 

FIRST  PENNSYLVANIA  REGIMENT 


Ambrose,  Patrick 
Barney,  Nicholas 
Bradley,  Robert 
Burns,  William 
Bryan,  Jacob 
Blake,  Edward 
Blake,  Michael 
Blakenny,  John 
Bleak,  Michael 
Bough,  John 
Boughter,  Martin 
Boyle,  James 
Boyles,  Charles 
Bradley,  James 
Brady,  Michael 
Branahan,  George 
Burke,  Edmund 
Burns,  John 
Burns,  Lawrence 
Burns,  Michael 
Butler,  Patrick 
Cavanagh,  John 
Calahan,  Daniel 
Callen,  Edward 
Carnahan,  William 


Carney,  Barnabas 
Carroll,  James 
Gary,  Aiken 
Casey,  Roger 
Cavenaugh,  Edward 
Cavenaugh,  Patrick 
Cochran,  George 
Colgon,  Barnabas 
Collier,  Richard 
Collins,  John 
Collins,  Thomas 
Coneway,  James 
Condon,  Peter 
Connelly,  Patrick 
Connel,  Terrence 
Conner,  Charles 
Conner,  John 
Cooley,  James 
Cooney,  John 
Coyle,  Alexander 
Cross,  Patrick 
Crowley,  Lawrence 
Crowly,  Miles 
Cummings,  Edward 
Curley,  Barnabas 


[116 


IRISH  AND  THE  WAR  FOR  INDEPENDENCE 


Curry,  James 
Curry,  Samuel 
Curry,  Samuel 
Curry,  William 
Donlin,  William 
Dailey,  Joseph 
Dailey,  William 
Dalton,  Richard 
Delany,  Martin 
Delany,  Murdoch 
Dempsey,  Charles 
Dempsey,  Sampson 
Dempsey,  Timothy 
Devinney,  John 
Donnell,  John 
Donahoo,  Timothy 
Donovan,  John 
Donovan,  Timothy 
Doran,  James 
Dorsey,  Matthew 
Dougherty,  Daniel 
Dougherty,  James,  Jr. 
Dougherty,  Matthew 
Downing,  Jeremiah 
Dowther,  John 
Doyle,  John 
Doyle,  Morris 
Doyle,  Samuel 
Dugan,  Charles 
Dunahoo,  Patrick 
Dunn,  John 
Dwier,  Cornelius 
Early,  Michael 
Ennis,  Francis 
Enos,  Francis 
Fan-all,  Patrick 
Feagan,  James 
Feagan,  William 


Fennell,  Patrick 
Ferroll,  Michael 
Finley,  Robert 
Finnegan,  Christopher 
Finney,  Roger 
Fitzpatrick,  William 
Fleming,  Hugh 
Fowler,  Patrick 
Grimes,  James 
Garvey,  John 
Go  wen,  Henry 
Gehan,  Peter 
Gibbon,  James 
Golding,  William 
Gordon,  William 
Gorman,  Laurence 
Gorman,  John 
Gorman,  Samuel 
Gowen,  Francis 
Grimes,  John 
Hagan,  Peter 
Haggerty,  Archibald 
Hagey,  Henry 
Haley,  Michael 
Hanley,  Hugh 
Hanlon,  Marmaduke 
Heagey,  Henry 
Heaney,  Henry 
Hening,  Patrick 
Heron,  Patrick 
Higgins,  James 
Hogan,  Sylvester 
Kelly,  John 
Kinkaid,  Joseph 
Kinkaid,  Andrew 
Kain,  John 
Kain,  Michael 
Kearn,  Luke 


[117] 


IRISH  CONTRIBUTION  TO  AMERICA'S  INDEPENDENCE 


Keary,  Arthur 
Keaton,  John 
Keaton,  Thomas 
Keenan,  Lawrence 
Keenon,  John 
Keenon,  Roger 
Kelly,  Alexander 
Kelly,  Edward 
Kelly,  Hugh 
Kelly,  James 
Kelly,  John 
Kelly,  Killian 
Kelly,  Patrick 
Kelly,  Thomas 
Kelly,  Timothy 
Kempsey,  Patrick 
Kennaghan,  Richard 
Kennedy,  Denis 
Kennedy,  Richard 
Kennedy,  Thomas 
Kinney,  Michael 
Knight,  John 
Lochery,  Michael 
Lafferty,  Edward 
Leaman,  Michael 
Leamy,  James 
Leonard,  John 
Leonard,  Patrick* 
Leonard,  Richard 
Leonard,  Roger 
Linn,  John 
Linn,  William 


Lynch,  John 
Lyons,  Edward 
Lyons,  Moses 
McCartney,  John 
McCartney,  Henry 
McCartney,  James 
McBride,  Peter 
McCann,  Daniel 
McCarroll,  John 
McCartney,  Felix 
McCarter,  David 
McCarty,  John 
McCaslin,  Patrick 
McCloskey,  John 
McCloskey,  Neill 
McCloskey,  William 
McClurghan,  Samuel 
McConnell,  Charles 
McConnell,  Cornelius 
McConnell,  William 
McCord,  Isaiah 
McCord,  Thomas 
McCormick,  John 
McCormick,  Hugh 
McCormick,  Patrick 
McCormick,  William 
McCortley,  Michael 
McCoy,  Michael 
McCoy,  Rory 
McCoy,  William 
McCreedy,  James 
McCrossan,  Patrick 


*  Born  in  Ireland,  1740;  joined  First  Rifles,  and  served  in  Proc- 
ter's Artillery  at  Bunker  Hill,  Long  Island,  White  Plains,  Trenton, 
Princeton,  Brandywine,  Germantown,  Stony  Point.  Served  in 
Captain  Ziegler's  company  at  Block  House,  where  he  carried  off 
Lieut.  David  Hammond,  who  was  badly  wounded.  Discharged 
at  Pittsburgh,  1783.  Served  also  under  Harmar,  St.  Clair,  and 
Wayne,  1791-96. 

[118] 


IRISH  AND  THE  WAR  FOR  INDEPENDENCE 


McCullom,  John 

McCune,  James 

McCullough,  John 

McDonald,  Francis 

McDonald,  John 

McDonald,  Michael 

McDonald,  Robert 

McDonald,  William 

McDonald,  John 

McDonald,  Alexander 

McDonnagh,  James 

McDowell,  Andrew 

McElhone,  Isaac 

McEnnally,  Matthew 

McFatridge,  Daniel 

McGakey,  Andrew 

McGaw,  Patrick 

McGee,  Robert 

McGinnis,  Daniel 

McGinnis,  Robert 

McGinness,  Owen 

McGlaughlin,  Felix 

McGlaughlin,  Samuel 

McGowen,  John 

McGraw,  John 

McGuire,  Barney 

McGuire,  John 

McGehegan,  George 

McHaffy,  James 

McHose,  Isaac 

Mclntire,  John 

McKeen,  Edward 

(McKelvey,  McKinleys,  Mc- 
Kenzies,  etc.,  etc.,  evidently 
Scotch,  omitted) 

McKnight,  Dennis 

McMahon,  John 

McManus,  John 


McMullan,  Daniel 
McMullan,  Michael 
McMullen,  John 
McNair,  John 
McNorton,  Michael 
McOnally,  Michael 
McPike,  Richard 
McSwine,  George 
McMurray,  William 
McMurtrie,  John 
Madden,  Edward 
Madden,  Michael 
Madden,  Thomas 
Magee,  James 
Magrath,  Thomas 
Mahoney,  James 
Mahoney,  Arthur 
Mahoney,  William 
Maloney,  John 
Maloney,  William 

(Martins  omitted) 
Means,  Thomas 
Milligan,  James 
Milligan,  Hugh 
Morney,  Henry 

(Moores  omitted) 
Moriarty,  Dennis 

(Morgans  omitted) 
Mulhollan,  Hugh 
Mullen,  John 
Mullen,  Patrick 
Mullen,  William 
Mulvany,  Patrick 
Murphy,  Archibald 
Murphy,  Dennis 
Murphy,  James 
Murphy,  Peter 
Murphy,  Philip 


1119] 


IRISH  CONTRIBUTION  TO  AMERICA'S  INDEPENDENCE 


Murphy,  Timothy 
Murphy,  William 
Murray,  Daniel 
Murray,  Francis 
Murray,  Jeremiah 
Murray,  John 
Murray,  Patrick 
Murray,  Thomas 
Murray,  William 
Neill,  James 
Norton,  Joseph 
Norton,  Henry 
Norton,  Patrick 
O'Bryan,  Daniel 
O'Bryan,  Dennis 
O'Bryan,  Martin 
O'Bryan,  William 
O'Neal,  Edward 
O'Neal,  James 
O'Neal,  John 
O'Neal,  Richard 
Phelan,  Peter 
Power,  John 
Powers,  Robert 
Quigley,  James 
Quinn,  Francis 
Quinn,  Michael 
Quinn,  Patrick 


Roark,  Andrew 
Ryan,  John 
Redman,  Michael 
Redman,  John 
Reiley,  Bernard 
Reiley,  Christopher 
Reiley,  Job 
Reiley,  John 

(Reynolds  omitted) 
Riley,  Christian 
Rowan,  John 
Rudy,  Barney 
Rudy,  Patrick 
Ryon,  Patrick 
Sweeney,  James 
Shehan,  Thomas 
Shehan,  Daniel 
Sloane,  Lawrence 
Sullivan,  Murty 
Sullivan,  Patrick 
Sweeney,  Hugh 
Taggart,  Dennis 
Ternay,  Matthew 
Welsh,  James 
Welsh,  John 
Welsh,  Michael 
Welsh,  Thomas 


SECOND  PENNSYLVANIA  REGIMENT 


Burns,  Samuel 
Boyd,  Abraham 
Boyle,  Philip 
Bradley,  Hugh 
Brady,  Michael 
Brandon,  Nathaniel 
Brannon,  James 


Brannon,  John 
Brogan,  Michael 
Bryan,  William 
Burke,  Alexander 
Burns,  Carberry 
Calalan,  Patrick 
Callagan,  John 

120] 


IRISH  AND  THE  WAR  FOR  INDEPENDENCE 


Carney,  Barney 
Casey,  Richard 
Cassaday,  Patrick 
Cochran,  John 
Collins,  John 
Collins,  Joseph 
Collins,  Thomas 
Collins,  Patrick 
Connely,  James 
Connor,  Matthew 
Cooley,  Edward 
Cooney,  James 
Cowan,  Charles 
Cross,  Patrick 
Crossan,  John 
Crowley,  David 
Cullen,  Thomas 
Cummings,  James 
Dailey,  Joseph 
Devine,  James 
Duggan,  Patrick 
Deady,  Patrick 
Derry,  Michael 
Donahoo,  John 
Donovan,  James 
Dougherty,  John 
Dougherty,  James 
Dungan,  Thomas 
Dunmore,  Paul 
Dwire,  Cornelius 
Eagan,  John 
Fagan,  Garrett 
Fagge,  Patrick 
Fagony,  James 
Faugh,  Michael 

(Finleys  omitted) 
Fitzgerald,  Edward 
Fitzgerald,  John 


Flanagan,  Timothy 
Galligher,  Francis 
Gillespie,  George 
Gordon,  Daniel 
Gordon,  John 
Griffin,  David 
Hurley,  John 
Hagan,  Peter 
Hagerthy,  Dennis 
Hale,  John 
Haley,  Morris 
Hanney,  Thomas 
Harlan,  John 
Jennings,  Thomas 
Kerney,  Barnet 
Kennedy,  Thomas 
Kennedy,  Robert 
Kallahan,  John 
Keaton,  John 
Keating,  Ignatius 
Keating,  John 
Keele,  Francis 
Keene,  Francis 
Keenan,  Roger 
Kelly,  James 
Kelly,  John 
Kelly,  Matthew 
Kelly,  Patrick 
Kempsey,  Patrick 
Kennard,  Joseph 
Kennedy,  Andrew 
Kennedy,  Samuel 
Kenny,  Neal 
Knight,  Michael 
Kough,  Ludwig 
Kusick,  John 
Lafferty,  Daniel 
Larkins,  David 


[121] 


IRISH  CONTRIBUTION  TO  AMERICA'S  INDEPENDENCE 


Lary,  Daniel 
Leary,  Daniel 
Lough,  George 
McCullan,  John 
McDonald,  William 
McKilloh,  Robert 
McMurdy,  John 
McPike.  James 
Mulhollon,  Hugh 
Murphy,  Archibald 
McLaughlin,  Robert 
McCarty,  Daniel 
Murray,  William 
McAfee,  Neil 
McCahan,  Richard 
McCalla,  Daniel 
McCarty,  Richard 
McCastleton,  Samuel 
McCay,  Daniel 
McChord,  Isaiah 
McCloskey,  John 
McCollum,  John 
McConnell,  William 
McConnick,  John 
McCormick,  William 
McCourt,  John 
McCowen,  John 
McCue,  Arthur 
McDowell,  William 
McElroy,  John 
McElvaine,  John 
McElvany,  Patrick 
McFatridge,  Daniel 
McGahan,  John 
McGahy,  Andrew 
McGaughin,  Michael 
McGeary,  Neal 
McGilton,  William 


McGinnis,  Roger 
McGrath,  William 
McGraw,  John 
McGraw,  William 
Mclntire,  Daniel 
Mclntire,  William 
McKillin,  Edward 
McKinney,  John 
McKinsey,  John 
McMahon,  Richard 
McManus,  Hugh 
McQuead,  John 
McQuillin,  James 
McQuillion,  Robert 
McVeagh,  Patrick 
McVey,  Daniel 
Madden,  Thomas 
Magee,  Thomas 
Mahon,  John 
Malony,  John 
Maloy,  James 

(Martins  omitted) 
Mellen,  John 

(Morrisons  omitted) 
Moyne,  John 
Mullen,  John 
Mulloney,  John 
Mulvany,  Patrick 
Murphy,  Andrew 
Murphy,  Christian 
Murphy,  John 
Murphy,  Philip 

(Murrays  omitted) 
Neill,  James 
Neill,  John 
Norton,  John 
Norton,  Henry 
O'Brien,  Daniel 


122 


IRISH  AND  THE  WAR  FOR  INDEPENDENCE 

O'Bryan,  Martin  Reily,  Job 

O'Bryan,  Sylvester  Ryan,  James 

O'Bryan,  William  Sloan,  John 
O'Foy,  Patrick  (Shaw,  Patrick) 

O'Neal,  Christopher  Shea,  Daniel 

O'Neal,  Edward  Sullivan,  James 

O'Neal,  James  Sullivan,  Michael 

Grand,  Patrick  Sullivan,  Patrick 

Quigley,  Edward  Sullivan,  Thomas 

Reagan,  James  Sullivan,  William 

Reagan,  Michael  Tague,  Patrick 

Reardon,  Jeremiah  Terney,  Matthew 

Record,  Patrick  Thornton,  James 

Redman,  John  Whelin,  William 
Redman,  Michael 

THIRD  PENNSYLVANIA  REGIMENT 

Boyd,  Thomas  Carehay,  Michael 

(Brown,  Patrick)  Cochran,  Blaney 

Barrett,  William  Collier,  Richard 

Boyd,  Thomas  Collins,  David 

Boyle,  Neal  Collins,  Richard 

Boyles,  Charles  Collins,  William 

Bradley,  Thomas  Connell,  Terrence 

Brady,  Thomas  Conner,  Patrick 

Brannon,  John  Conroy,  James 

Bryan,  William  Conway,  Michael 

Bryan,  Patrick  Cooley,  William 

Burk,  John  Courtney,  Cornelius 

Burns,  James  Courtney,  William 

Burns,  Timothy  Coyle,  Mark 

Burns,  William  Coyle,  Robert 

Collings,  Thomas  Craven,  John 

Collins,  Samuel  Cummings,  Edward 

Cain,  John  Curley,  Barney 

Calligan,  John  Cusick,  John 

Calligan,  William  Doyle 

[123] 


IRISH  CONTRIBUTION  TO  AMERICA'S  INDEPENDENCE 


O'Neal,  Nicholas 
O'Harra,  Patrick 
O'Hara,  William 
O'Neal,  Daniel 
O'Neal,  James 
O'Neal,  John 
Quigley,  Edward 
Quinn,  Francis 
Reilly,  John 
Redman,  John 
Reily,  William 

(Rock,  Patrick) 
Rowan,  John 


Ryan,  James 
Shehan,  Daniel 
Sloan,  Lawrence 
Slone,  William 
Sulh'van,  Daniel 
Sullivan,  Owen 
Sweeney,  James 
Sweeney,  Hugh 
Toner,  James 
Toner,  John 
Toole,  John 

(Wear,  Cornelius) 
Welsh,  William 


FOURTH  PENNSYLVANIA  REGIMENT 


(Allwine,  Barney) 
Boyle,  John 

(Butler,  Patrick) 
Bannon,  Jeremiah 
Blake,  Michael 
Boyd,  Thomas 
Boyle,  John 
Boyle,  Neal 
Bradley,  John 
Brannon,  Darby 
Bryan,  William 
Burke,  Francis 
Byrns,  James 
Cochran,  George 
Conroy,  James 
Connor,  Patrick 
Callaghan,  John 
Carnaghan,  James 
Carroll,  Thomas 
Cassady,  William 
Cavanaugh,  John 
Cochran,  Blaney 


Cochran,  John 
Collings,  John 
Collings,  Richard 
Collings,  Robert 
Collings,  William 
Conner,  Charles 
Conner,  Martin 
Connelly,  Andrew 
Courtney,  Cornelius 
Donnell,  John 
Dunbar,  John 
Donnelly,  George 
Dailey,  John 
Demond,  Peter 
Dempsey,  Patrick 
Dennison,  Thomas 
Desmond,  John 
Deveney,  Hugh 
Devine,  Bernard 
Devine,  Hugh 
Drudge,  John 
Donahoo,  Patrick 

[126] 


IRISH  AND  THE  WAR  FOR  INDEPENDENCE 


Dougan,  John 
Duffield,  Felix 
Duffield,  John 
Fagin,  James 
Fitzgerald,  Edward 
Garvin,  Henry 
Galagher,  Daniel 
Galagher,  James 
Garvey,  John 
Gogehan,  Joseph 
Hagan,  Patrick 
Hanlin,  Patrick 
Hartney,  Patrick 
Higgins,  James 
Kain,  Michael 
Kain,  Henry 
Kealing,  Thomas 
Keenan,  John 
Keilan,  John 
Kelly,  Barnabas 
Kelly,  Charles 
Kelly,  Thomas 
Kelly,  William 
Kennedy,  Andrew 
Kernahan,  Richard 
Lynch,  Michael 
Lafferty,  Robert 
Larkins,  James 
Lynch,  Lawrence 
Lynch,  Michael 
Mclntire,  William 
McPike,  James 
McMullen,  William 
McDonald,  Alexander 
Mcllvaine,  Thomas 
McBride,  James 
McCarty,  Denis 
McColly,  Robert 

9 


McConnell,  Charles 
McCormick,  John 
McCormick,  Patrick 
McCoy,  Rory 
McCune,  John 
McDonald,  Francis 
McDonough,  James 
McElroy,  Hugh 
McFarland,  James 
McGahy,  Andrew 
McCarrigan,  Daniel 
McGlaughlin,  Bryan 
McGuire,  John 
Mclntire,  James 
McKevey,  Hugh 
McKevey,  Thomas 
McMahon,  Timothy 
McManus,  Hugh 
McNamara,  Dennis 
McPike,  Thomas 
McQueen,  Daniel 
McQueen,  John 
McSwaine,  George 
Madden,  Michael 
Magan,  Patrick 
Magee,  Daniel 
Maloney,  William 
Maloney,  Archibald 
Maloy,  James 
Martin,  Patrick 
Mullen,  Manus 
Murphy,  Peter 
Murray,  Daniel 
Murray,  Patrick 
Nixon,  John 
Noglan,  William 
O'Neal,  John 
O'Hara,  Patrick 


[127] 


IRISH  CONTRIBUTION  TO  AMERICA'S  INDEPENDENCE 


O'Neal,  Richard 
Reily,  Charles 
Rourk,  Andrew 
Rion,  John 
Roach,  Sadler 
Ryan,  Michael 
Ryan,  Patrick 
Sloan,  John 
Shannon,  James 


Sullivan,  Daniel 
Sullivan,  Murty 
Sullivan,  Owen 
Sullivan,  Thomas 
Welch,  Edward 
Welsh,  James 
Welsh,  Patrick 
Welsh,  William 


FIFTH  PENNSYLVANIA  REGIMENT 


Bradley,  Hugh 
Brady,  Robert 
Brady,  Thomas 
Burns,  Daniel 
Burns,  Laughlin 
Burns,  Lawrence 
Coyne,  Bartholomew 
Cain,  John 
Gary,  Arthur 
Cavanaugh,  John 
Cochran,  Robert 
Collins,  John 
Connel,  Patrick 
Conner,  John 
Conner,  Matthew 
Connor,  Ambrose 
Cooley,  James 
Costello,  Jordan 
Crossley,  Thomas 
Crowley,  Miles 
Curry,  Roger 
Curry,  William 
Delany,  William 
Devene,  James 
Daly,  James 
Deveny,  John 


Dailey,  James 
Dailey,  John 
Delaney,  Martin 
Deviny,  Cornelius 
Donnelly,  John 
Doran,  James 
Dorney,  Matthew 
Dorsey,  Matthew 
Dougherty,  Bernard 
Dougherty,  James 
Dougherty,  William 
Doyle,  John 
Doyle,  Morris 
Doyle,  Peter 
Doyle,  Thomas,  Sr. 
Doyle,  Thomas,  Jr. 
Drury,  Michael 
Duffy,  George 
Duffy,  Michael 
Dunn,  John 
Eagan,  John 
Farrall,  Patrick 
Farroll,  Michael 
Feagan,  William 
Fennell,  Patrick 
Fitzpatrick,  William 

[128] 


IRISH  AND  THE  WAR  FOR  INDEPENDENCE 


Flanaghan,  John 
Forbes,  James 
Fowler,  Patrick 
Garvey,  John 
Gillespy,  John 
Gordon,  William 
Gowen,  Francis 
Griffin,  William 
Hagens,  Daniel 
Haney,  David 
Hanin,  Richard 
Hannan,  John 
Hargan,  John 
Harrigan,  John 
Heany,  Daniel 
Hogan,  Daniel 
Hogan,  Sylvester 
Kennedy,  James 
Keary,  Arthur 
Keenan,  Nicholas 
Kelly,  John 
Kelly,  Michael 
Kelly,  Thomas 
Kelly,  Timothy 
Kennedy,  Cornelius 
Kennedy,  Dennis 
Kergey,  John 
Linn,  Patrick 
Lynch,  Patrick 
McDonald,  William 
McDougal,  William 
McMahon,  John 
McCowan,  John 
McCowen,  William 
McAnaly,  Matthew 
McCamron,  James 
McCann,  Daniel 
McCarter,  John 


McCarty,  Jeremiah 
McCarty,  Michael 
McColly,  Samuel 
McCord,  Thomas 
McCortley,  Michael 
McCowan,  Hugh 
McCowan,  John 
McCoy,  John 
McCoy,  Michael 
McCrackin,  John 
McCrossan,  Patrick 
McCuen,  William 
McCulloch,  John 
McCulloch,  John 
McCulloch,  Samuel 
McDaniel,  Robert 
McDonagh,  John 
McDonald,  Robert 
McDonald,  Terrence 
McDonald,  William 
McDonnell,  Robert 
McElheny,  George 
McEnally,  Martin 
McEwen,  John 
McFall,  Archibald 
McFall,  Dennis 
McFall,  Thomas 
McGee,  William 
McGlaughlin,  George 
McGlaughlin,  John 
McGrotty,  Dennis 
McGuigan,  Andrew 
McGuire,  Charles 
McKissick,  John 
McKnight,  David 
McLochlin,  Hugh 
McMahon,  John 
McManness,  Michael 


[129 


IRISH  CONTRIBUTION  TO  AMERICA'S  INDEPENDENCE 


McMullen,  Francis 
McNamara,  Patrick 
McOwen,  John 
McPheran,  Andrew 
McPike,  Thomas 
McQuillen,  Charles 
McSherry,  Peter 
McSwine,  Dennis 
McWillfams,  Alexander 
Mahoney,  James 
Manley,  William 
Murphy,  Lawrence 
Murphy,  Arthur 
Murphy,  William 
Neill,  James 
Nixon,  Marvin 


Norton,  John 
O'Hara,  George 
O'Harron,  David 
O'Harra,  Daniel 
O'Neil,  James 
Phelan,  Peter 
Redman,  John 
Reily,  James 
Rock,  Patrick 
Roddy,  Patrick 
Rodgers,  Patrick 
Rooney,  Peter 
Saladay,  Daniel 
Walsh,  John 
Welsh,  John 
Welsh,  Michael 


SIXTH  PENNSYLVANIA  REGIMENT 


Bready,  Robert 
Burke,  Michael 
Brady,  Samuel 
Bryan,  William 
Buckley,  Daniel 
Burke,  William 
Burns,  John 
Carroll,  Dennis 
Colgan,  John 
Callaghan,  Patrick 
Casaday,  John 
Colgan,  Barnabas,  Sr. 
Colgan,  Barnabas,  Jr. 
Collins,  William 
Connor,  John 

(Cox,  Barney) 
Dona  van,  John 
Doyle,  Peter 
Duffy,  James 


Fitzpatrick,  Peter 
Finley,  Peter 
Finney,  Roger 
Flanagan,  Timothy 
Gehon,  Peter 
Gordon,  Charles 
Gordon,  John 
Griffin,  David 
Grimes,  John 
Henny,  Henry 
Haley,  John 
Hanley,  Christopher 
Hanley,  Mannaduke 
Healey,  John 
Henley,  Maurice 
Hogan,  Daniel 
Huggan,  Daniel 
Kelly,  Benjamin 
Kelley,  Charles 


130 


IRISH  AND  THE  WAR  FOR  INDEPENDENCE 


Kelley,  Killian 
Kelly,  Dennis 
Kelly,  William 
Kenney,  Daniel 
Kenon,  Lawrence 
Laughlin,  Peter 
Logan,  Michael 
Lowrey,  Patrick 
McGilton,  William 
McGee,  James 
McCord,  Samuel 
McAfee,  John 
McBride,  James 
McCarroll,  John 
McCastleton,  James 
McCastleton,  Samuel  D. 
McCaslin,  Patrick 
McCaston,  James 
McClusky,  Francis 
McDaniel,  Malcolm 
McDaniel,  Matthew 
McDaniel,  Michael 
McDonald,  Michael 
McDonald,  Terrence 
McDonagh,  James 
McDowell,  John 
McEntire,  James 
McGee,  Thomas 


McGinnis,  Robert 
McGuire,  Philip 
McKinney,  John 
McCune,  Frederick 
McLine,  John 
McManamy,  Daniel 
McMullin,  John 
McPike,  Richard 
Magaw,  John 
M  alone,  John 
Milligan,  William 
Moran,  Michael 
Morrison,  Michael 
Mullin,  William 
Mullin,  Patrick 
Mulvaney,  John 
Norton,  Patrick 
O'Brian,  Philip 
O'Brien,  John 
O' Bryan,  William 
O'Neal,  Daniel 
O'Neal,  James 
Reily,  Thomas 
Shawnesse,  John* 
Shehey,  Daniel 
Swaine,  Edward* 
Welsh,  John 


One  hundred  Irish  names  of  Pensioners  of  the  Revolu- 
tionary War,  living  in  Virginia,  printed  in  Senate  Docu- 

*  These  two  names  illustrate  how  Irish  names  are  changed : 
O'Shaughnessy,  Shaughnessy,  Shawnesse,  Shaw;  McSwine,  Swine, 
Swaine.  Hundreds  of  names  of  Irish  origin  were  necessarily  omitted 
from  the  list  because  so  many  Irish  names  have  assumed  an  English 
form.  The  names  Shaw,  Moore,  Smith,  Morrison,  Newman,  Kerr, 
Carr,  Clarke,  are  just  as  prevalent  among  Irish  Catholic  families  as 
names  beginning  with  "Me"  or  "O'  ". 

[131] 


IRISH  CONTRIBUTION  TO  AMERICA'S  INDEPENDENCE 

merits,  1835,  giving  names  of  State  Troops  in  which  they 
served  and  year  pension  commenced. 

Martin  Mooney,  Virginia,  1819 
Edward  Casey,  Virginia,  1819 
Bartholomew  Ragan,  Virginia,  1818 
Patrick  McCowan,  Pennsylvania,  1818 
James  Bryams,  Virginia,  1818 
Peter  Dager,  Virginia,  1818 
Benjamin  Galloway,  Virginia,  1818 
Sampson  Dempsey,  Pennsylvania,  1818 
John  Gallegher,  Maryland,  1818 
Wm.  Connerly,  Virginia,  1818 
Wm.  Kennedy,  Virginia,  1818 
Dempsey  Stuart,  Virginia,  1819 
Francis  Burk,  Maryland,  1818 
John  Cochran,  Virginia,  1828 
John  Donnell,  Pennsylvania,  1818 
Archibald  Casey,  Virginia,  1818 
Wm.  Burke,  2nd,  Virginia,  1818 
Daniel  Flin,  Virginia.  1818 
Perry  Carroll,  Virginia,  1818 
Joshua  Dunn,  Virginia,  1818 
Michael  Grosh,  Maryland,  1818 
Samuel  Courtney,  Virginia,  1818 
William  Drone,  Virginia,  1818 
John  Dulin,  Virginia,  1818 
Thomas  McGee,  Pennsylvania,  1819 
William  Burke,  Virginia,  1808 
Dennis  Bush,  Virginia,  1818 
William  Burke,  Virginia,  1808 
Dennis  Bush,  Virginia,  1818 
John  Hefferlin,  Virginia,  1818 
Samuel  Harrell,  Virginia,  1819 
John  Haney,  Maryland,  1818 
Daniel  Hayley,  Virginia,  1818 
Alex.  McMullen,  Virginia,  1818 
Arch.  McDonald,  Virginia,  1782 

[132] 


IRISH  AND  THE  WAR  FOR  INDEPENDENCE 

Dennis  O'Brian,  Maryland,  1818 

John  Hackett,  Virginia,  1819 

Dennis  Ready,  Virginia,  1818 

John  Mallory,  Virginia,  1818 

Francis  McCraw,  Virginia,  1818 

Martin  Delany,  Pennsylvania,  1818 

Geo.  Dougherty,  Pennsylvania,  1824 

John  Dailey,  Virginia,  1818 

Hugh  Malone,  Maryland,  1818 

Isaac  Welch,  Virginia,  1819 

John  Byrns,  Virginia,  1818 

James  Cochran,  Ensign,  Virginia,  1818 

Michael  Gary,  Maryland,  1818 

Stephen  Flecherty,  Maryland,  1818 

James  Hanlon,  Virginia,  1818 

Hugh  Mullegan,  Pennsylvania,  1790 

Michael  McKnight,  Virginia,  1785 

Terence  McDonald,  Virginia, 

Geo.  Murfree,  Virginia,  1818 

Samuel  McCoy,  Virginia,  1818 

Daniel  Brian,  Maryland,  1818 

Peter  Hains,  Virginia  and  Maryland,  1818 

Andrew  McCarty,  Pennsylvania,  1818 

John  Collins,  Virginia,  1818 

Patrick  Gleason,  Virginia,  1818 

John  Meanly,  Virginia,  1818 

Wm.  McGeorge,  Virginia,  1818 

Wm.  Dennis  Hampton,  alias  Wm.  Dennis,  Virginia, 

1818 

Peter  McCune,  Virginia,  1818 
Wm.  Carney,  Virginia,  1818 
Francis  Dyer,  Virginia,  1832 
Dennis  Crow,  Virginia,  1832 
James  McDade,  Virginia,  1818 
Argelon  Toone,  Virginia,  1818 
Daniel  Lee,  New  York,  1818 
Thomas  Malone,  Delaware,  1820 
James  Larkin,  Virginia,  1818 

[133] 


IRISH  CONTRIBUTION  TO  AMERICA'S  INDEPENDENCE 

Thomas  McDaniel,  North  Carolina,  1821 

Daniel  Conner,  Virginia,  1820 

John  Nash,  Virginia,  1819 

John  O'Neal,  Pennsylvania,  1818 

John  Bourn,  Virginia,  1818 

Charles  Murphey,  Virginia,  1818 

Terry  McHaney,  Georgia,  1821 

John  Quinn,  Virginia,  1823 

Robert  Dyson,  Virginia,  1818 

Thos.  Dondeen,  Virginia,  1818 

John  Flaridy,  Pennsylvania,  1820 

Thomas  Mahorney,  Virginia,  1818,  aged  105  years 

Patrick  McEwing,  Virginia,  1818 

John  Roach,  Virginia,  1818 

John  Sullivan,  Virginia,  1830 

John  Ferrall,  Pennsylvania,  1818 

Thomas  Plumkett,  Virginia,  1818 

John  Reardon,  Virginia,  1800 

Peter  Grim,  Virginia,  1818 

Wm.  Grady,  Virginia,  1819 

Joseph  Golloday,  Virginia,  1819 

Benj.  McKnight,  Virginia,  1819 

Wm.  Knight,  Virginia,  1818 

Wm.  Thornton,  Virginia,  1818 

Archibald  Maloney,  Virginia,  1819 

Patrick  Hanlin,  Pennsylvania,  1818 

John  Burke,  Maryland,  1818 

Terence  Doran,  Virginia,  1818 

Bennet  McKey,  Virginia,  1818 

Daniel  Bennett,  alias  Bennings,  Maryland,  1823 

One  hundred  Irish  names  of  Pensioners  of  the  Revolu- 
tionary War,  living  in  Ohio  and  Indiana,  printed  in  Senate 
Documents,  1835,  giving  name  of  state  troops  in  which 
they  served. 

Michael  Bowen,  Massachusetts 
John  Burns,  Sergeant,  Virginia 

[1341 


IRISH  AND  THE  WAR  FOR  INDEPENDENCE 

Sylvanus  Burke,  Massachusetts 

Lawrence  Byrn,  Pennsylvania 

Daniel  Cornell,  Pennsylvania 

James  Curry,  Captain,  Virginia 

George  Carrol,  Maryland 

William  Colgan,  Virginia 

John  Clancey,  Maryland 

Francis  Costigan,  Lieutenant,  New  Jersey 

Daniel  Clay,  New  Hampshire 

Patrick  Cunningham,  Pennsylvania 

Jacob  Casey,  Virginia 

Thomas  Downey,  Pennsylvania 

Henry  Dugan,  Pennsylvania 

Elias  Dailey,  Pennsylvania 

Dennis  Dailey,  Virginia 

Richard  Done,  Connecticut 

John  Derrough,  Virginia 

Samuel  Dailey,  Massachusetts 

John  Denoon,  Maryland 

Andrew  Dennis,  Pennsylvania 

Joseph  D.  Finley,  Major,  Pennsylvania 

Henry  Fitzgerald,  Pennsylvania 

William  Flood,  Virginia 

Robert  Fleming,  Pennsylvania 

Anthony  Geoghegan,  Maryland 

Cornelius  Hurley,  Virginia 

John  Kelly,  Virginia 

Daniel  Keyes,  Sergeant,  Massachusetts 

Andrew  Kennedy,  Pennsylvania 

John  Legore,  Pennsylvania 

Peter  Lynch,  Pennsylvania 

James  Larkins,  Sergeant,  Pennsylvania 

Patrick  Leonard,  Pennsylvania 

Patrick  Logan,  Virginia 

Daniel  Morley,  Connecticut 

Peter  Magee,  Lieutenant,  New  York 

John  McMahon,  Pennsylvania 

John  McElroy,  fife  major,  Pennsylvania 

[1351 


IRISH  CONTRIBUTION  TO  AMERICA'S  INDEPENDENCE 

Neal  Murry,  Pennsylvania 

John  McKnight,  Maryland 

Redmont  McDonough,  Virginia 

Hugh  McClelland,  Pennsylvania 

Hugh  Mulloy,  Lieutenant,  Massachusetts 

John  McCarroll,  Pennsylvania 

John  Murphy,  Virginia 

Samuel  McKee,  Pennsylvania 

John  McQuown,  Virginia 

William  McGee,  New  Hampshire 

James  McEver,  Massachusetts 

Patrick  McDaniel,  Pennsylvania 

James  Murphy,  Pennsylvania 

James  McBurney,  New  Jersey 

Alexander  McGloggan,  Pennsylvania 

Robert  McCullough,  Connecticut 

Cornelius  Morris,  Maryland 

Connelly  McFaden,  New  Jersey 

Walter  McFarland,  Pennsylvania 

Charles  Magin,  Maryland 

Richard  McHenry,  Pennsylvania 

Wm.  McClain,  Pennsylvania 

Wm.  Manning,  Sergeant,  Connecticut 

Francis  McConnell,  New  Jersey 

Abner  McMahon,  New  Jersey 

Wm.  McKelvey,  Pennsylvania 

Michael  McClunie,  Pennsylvania 

Neil  McMullen,  Pennsylvania 

Jesse  Meneley,  New  Jersey 

James  McGuinnes,  Pennsylvania 

Thomas  Mclntire,  Pennsylvania 

William  McMurray,  Pennsylvania 

Charles  McGuire,  Pennsylvania 

Dennis  O'Laughlin,  Pennsylvania 

William  Roach,  Pennsylvania 

Daniel  Reddington,  Massachusetts 

James  Reiley,  Pennsylvania 

Richard  Rilea,  Virginia 

[136] 


IRISH  AND  THE  WAR  FOR  INDEPENDENCE 

Patrick  Sullivan,  Pennsylvania 
Timothy  Sherman,  Massachusetts 
David  Boylls,  Virginia 
Charles  Boyll,  Virginia 
John  Burns,  Virginia 
Bartholomew  Carroll,  Virginia 
Michael  Courtney,  Virginia 
Terrance  Connor,  Virginia 
Thomas  Flynn,  Delaware 
David  Haney,  Pennsylvania 
Richard  Kenney,  Maryland 
Daniel  Kenny,  Pennsylvania 
Matthew  McAfee,  Pennsylvania 
James  J.  Murphy,  Virginia 
James  Mahoney,  Virginia 
Daniel  Sullivan,  Pennsylvania 
Daniel  Welch,  Connecticut 

One  hundred  Irish  names  of  Pensioners  of  the  Revolu- 
tionary War,  living  in  New  York  State,  printed  in  Senate 
Documents,  1835,  giving  names  of  State  Troops  in  which 
they  served. 

Lewis  Brady,  New  York 

Daniel  Brackett,  Massachusetts 

James  Bryan,  Rhode  Island 

Adam  Brannon,  New  York 

Michael  Burdge,  Sergeant,  New  York 

Elijah  Bryan,  Connecticut 

Nicholas  Cusick,  Lieutenant,  New  York 

Michael  Cross,  Hazen's  Regiment 

Joseph  Carley,  New  York 

Lewis  J.  Costigin,  Lieutenant,  New  Jersey 

William  Conner,  New  York 

James  Cooley,  Massachusetts 

John  Cahall,  New  York 

James  Dorsey,  Massachusetts 

[137] 


IRISH  CONTRIBUTION  TO  AMERICA'S  INDEPENDENCE 

Daniel  Dorsey,  Captain,  Maryland 

Timothy  Dunn,  Connecticut 

Timothy  Driskell,  Pennsylvania 

James  Dailey,  Connecticut 

James  Dorey,  New  York 

John  Dailey,  New  Jersey 

Thomas  Dennis,  Rhode  Island 

Francis  Delaney,  North  Carolina 

Silas  Daley,  New  York 

Jonathan  Farley,  Massachusetts 

William  Farley,  New  Hampshire 

Amos  Flood,  New  Hampshire 

Joseph  Flood,  Massachusetts 

Aaron  Forbes,  Massachusetts 

Samuel  Farley,  Massachusetts 

Jonathan  Finney,  Massachusetts 

Bethuel  Finney,  Massachusetts 

Benjamin  Griffin,  New  York 

Thomas  Gilligan,  Massachusetts 

Francis  Garvey,  New  York 

Kirkland  Griffin,  Mariner 

Thomas  Gillen,  Maryland 

Joseph  Henegin,  Connecticut 

Daniel  Hayden,  Massachusetts 

Benoni  Hogan,  Connecticut 

Nathaniel  Higgins,  Sergeant,  New  York 

Robert  Kelly,  New  York 

Hugh  Kennedy,  Rhode  Island 

William  Kennedy,  Connecticut 

Edmund  Kelly,  New  York 

Joshua  Kelly,  New  York 

William  Kelly,  2nd,  Massachusetts 

James  Kane,  Pennsylvania 

John  Kennelly,  Hazen's  Regiment 

Josiah  Kenney,  Massachusetts 

William  McMennes,  New  York 

Neil  McCoy,  Massachusetts 

Charles  McDonald,  Sergeant,  Connecticut 

(1881 


IRISH  AND  THE  WAR  FOR  INDEPENDENCE 

Patrick  McGee,  Hazen's  Regiment 

Bernard  McKnight,  Massachusetts 

James  McCauley,  New  York 

Michael  McGingar,  Sergeant,  New  York 

John  McMillan,  New  Jersey 

Paul  McCoy,  Connecticut 

John  McNeil,  New  Jersey 

George  McMurphy,  New  Hampshire 

Martin  McNeary,  Connecticut 

Jeremiah  McCartney,  North  Carolina 

John  McManners,  Connecticut 

Joseph  McFarland,  New  Hampshire 

William  McMullin,  Pennsylvania 

John  McDongal,  New  York 

Andrew  McKenney,  Pennsylvania 

James  McKinney,  New  York 

John  McMullan,  Massachusetts 

Thomas  McCarty,  New  York 

Michael  Madden,  Massachusetts 

William  Mooney,  New  York 

Ebenezer  Morley,  Massachusetts 

John  McNally,  Massachusetts 

Hugh  McConnell,  New  York 

Daniel  McCarty,  Massachusetts 

Henry  McNeal,  New  York 

Robert  McKnight,  Massachusetts 

Rufus  Mclntire,  Rhode  Island 

Christopher  McManus,  Sergeant,  New  Jersey 

John  C.  McNeil,  Sergeant,  New  Hampshire 

Andrew  McNutt,  New  York 

John  Maloney,  Massachusetts 

Alexander  Maroney,  New  York 

Michael  Madden,  Massachusetts 

John  Murphy,  New  York 

James  Murphy,  Massachusetts 

Richard  Nixon,  New  Jersey 

Daniel  O'Keiff,  Pennsylvania 

Cornelius  Organ,  Pennsylvania 

[1391 


IRISH  CONTRIBUTION  TO  AMERICA'S  INDEPENDENCE 

James  Patrick,  Rhode  Island 

Thomas  Quigley,  Captain,  New  York 

William  Quigley,  Massachusetts 

Robert  Ryan,  Connecticut 

Jacob  Reddington,  Massachusetts 

Daniel  Shays,  Captain,  Massachusetts 

John  Sloan,  Massachusetts 

John  Welsh,  New  York 

Joseph  Walsh,  Lieutenant,  Massachusetts 

Robert  Welch,  Connecticut 

Walter  Whalen,  New  York 

Jeremiah  Whalen,  Rhode  Island 

Samuel  Welch,  Connecticut 

Rossel  Welch,  Massachusetts 

Thomas  Walsh,  New  York 

Note  the  New  England  influence  on  the  names  of  many 
of  these  soldiers  who  were  unquestionably  of  Celtic  Irish 
origin,  e.  g.,  Adam  Brannon,  Silas  Daley,  Jonathan  Farley, 
Amos  Flood,  Aaron  Forbes,  Jonathan  Finney,  Nathaniel 
Higgins,  Joshua  Kelly,  Josiah  Kenney,  Ebenezer  Morley, 
Jacob  Redington,  Jeremiah  Whalen. 

In  compiling  the  foregoing  lists,  names  like  Michael 
Dunning,  Daniel  Fort,  Daniel  Hamilton,  Daniel  Moss, 
Michael  Lochrey,  Daniel  Lindsley,  Daniel  Osbourn, 
Daniel  Ward,  etc.,  etc.,  were  not  included,  as  the  sur- 
names might  not  be  considered  as  Irish. 


140] 


a 


o     g5 
£     1 


£? 


ANGElfo, 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 

Los  Angeles 
This  book  is  DUE  on  the  last  date  stamped  below. 


\INfl3\\v 
•ANGELA 


REC'D  LD-URL 

XjftlON       nrn  J  •  'OQ 

OCT2i,4»li    '    r 


991 


BRARYO/r 


JUN20199? 


RECCL 


3  1158  01250  2406 


